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PLEASURES OF ANGLING 



Rod and Reel 



TROUT AND SALMON 



1/ 

BY GEORGE DAWSON 






He that hopes to be a good Angler must not only bring an inquiring, search- 
ing, observing wit, but he must bring a large measure of hope and patience, and 
a love and propensity to the art itself; but having once got and practised it, 
then doubt not but that Angling will be so pleasant that it will prove to be, 
like Virtue, a reward to itself. — Walton. 



NEW YORK: 

SHELDON & COMPANY, 

8 Murray Street. 

187G. 




ft 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen 
hundred and seventy-six, 

By GEORGE DAWSON, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, 

PRINTERS AND ST E RE O T Y P E R S , 

ALBANY, N. Y. 



PEEFAOE. 

Most of the sketches which make up this volume 
were published in the Albany Evening Journal, at 
long intervals, during the past three years. Their 
title indicates their character and purpose, namely, 
to set forth the *•' Pleasures of Angling " by detail- 
ing some of the incidents common to its pursuit. 
If they shall afford any pleasure to the "simple 
wise men " who enjoy the innocent pastime and the 
quiet repose which no other recreation affords in 
such full measure, I will not regret that they have 
been given a form which was not originally in- 
tended. 

a. d. 



No life, my honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the 
life of a well-governed angler; for when the lawyer is swallowed up 
with business, and the statesman is preventing or contriving plots, 
then we sit on cowslip banks, hear the birds sing, and possess our- 
selves in as much quietness as these silent silver streams, which we 
now see glide so quietly by us. — [Izaak Walton. 



Abused mortals, did you know 

Where joy, heart's-ease and comforts grow, 

You'd scorn proud towers, 

And seek them in these bowers, 
Where winds, sometimes, our woods perhaps may shake, 
But blust'ring care could never tempest make, 

Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us, 

Saving of fountains that glide by us. 

— [Charles Cotton. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Chapter I. 

PAGE. 

Prefatory and apologetic 1 

Angling as a lasting pleasure 3 

The higher and lower branches of angling 4 

Preparation, anticipation and recollection 5 

Chapter II. 

Angling and anglers vindicated 8 

Not all of fishing to fish 10 

Love of angling no proof of sanctification 12 

Unselfish courtesy 13 

Chapter III. 

Angling as a medicine 14 

Prevention better than cure 17 

The duty of recreation 18 

Chapter IV. 

Re-stocking salmon waters in the Provinces 20 

Causes of depletion 21 

What New York is doing 22 

Fishing regulations in the Provinces 24 



Yin TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter V. 

PAGE. 

Fish breeding 29 

What should be done to replenish American waters. ... 32 

Chaptek VI. 

Hobbies and some of their riders 35 

Rarity of salmon anglers in the United States 38 

Some of the experts of New Brunswick 40 

Chapter VII. 

Realization of a long-deferred hope 44 

Whom I went with 46 

Salmon fishing outfit 46 

How we reached the Cascapedia 48 

Scenery en route 49 

Arrival and reception 51 

Chapter VIII. 

Our movement up the river 52 

The Indian canoes and river rapids 53 

Our first camp 55 

Chief Justices Ritchie and Gray 56 

A novel torch-light procession 58 

Chapter IX. 

Ticket-of-leave from the General 60 

Abundance of trout 61 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE. 

My first casts for salmon 62 

Effect of my first salmon rise 63 

Fight with my first salmon 64 

Victory 66 

Chapter X. 

All hands at work , 68 

A clogged reel 71 

A provoking position 72 

The chances against killing fish 75 

Chapter XI. 

Salmon habits 76 

Do salmon feed in fresh water 77 

The largest fish of the season breaks off 78 

The weight of some of our fish 81 

Shot at a moose 82 

End of our first season 83 

Chapter XII. 

An ancient angler's kit 84 

Chapter XIII. 

Brief tribute to a departed friend 94 

Chapter XIV. 

Second visit to the Cascapedia 97 

Scenery coveted by anglers 99 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter XV. 

PAGE. 

Who went a-fishing 101 

Invalid anglers 102 

A pleasant carnp 105 

The Indian gaffer 106 

The best time to fish for salmon 107 

A delicate morsel 109 

How to be comfortable in camp 110 

The angling advantages of preserved waters 112 

The attractions of forest solitudes 113 

Chapter XVI. 

A pleasant morning 116 

Courtesy and self-sacrifice 117 

Judge Fullerton as an angler 120 

The Judge's first salmon 121 

Dun trying to reel in a fifty-ton bowlder 123 

Chapter XVII. 

Difference in the play of fish 126 

A pleasant disappointment 128 

The wisdom of judicious commendation 129 

Instances of mistakes in gaffing 130 

How to treat leaping salmon 131 

The music of the reel-click 132 

Chapter XVIII. 
The attractions of fly-fishing 135 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE. 

Trout fishing in salmon waters 136 

Sea trout and brook trout 137 

"DoFishHear?" 138 

Arrival of G-en. Arthur 139 

A novel merry-making 141 

Chapter XIX. 

A search after solitude 143 

An eccentric fish 146 

An upset and its consequences 148 

English anglers 150 

Chapter XX. 
A short essay on fly-casting 151 

Chapter XXI. 

The best pool on the river 159 

Anglers covet pleasant surroundings 160 

A forest picture 162 

An upset in " Lazy Bogan " 164 

A narrow escape 166 

Chapter XXII. 

Going up the river 168 

A thunder storm 170 

Our champion match-lighter 171 

The early morning fishing theory discussed 172 

Running the rapids 1 74 



Xn TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter XXIII. 

PAGE. 

At the Forks 176 

A long fight with a gamy fish 178 

A salmon quadrille. 179 

Patience rewarded 181 

A torch-light view of the salmon pools 182 

Chapter XXIV. 

Forest game , 187 

A bear chase 188 

Shot at a moose 190 

A gold-seeker 191 

A word about fishing tackle 192 

Chapter XXV. 

Leaving camp 196 

A bit of rhapsody 198 

Forest life not adapted to all temperaments 201 

A primitive people 203 

Homeward bound 204 

Chapter XXVI. 

Trout fishing in the Adirondacks in 1873 207 

The best times to fish 209 

Trolling as a pastime 210 

The North Woods as a State park 211 

Why anglers avoid a crowd 212 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIII 

PAGE. 

Martin's 213 

Invalids in the woods 214 

A late spring makes late fishing 215 

The high dam at Setting-Pole rapids. 217 

Chapter XXVII. 

Trolling on the lower Saranac 219 

The pleasures of exploration 220 

Eccentricities of memory 222 

Long waiting for a wary fish 225 

Chapter XXVIII. 

Musings of silent men 228 

A pleasant place to cast 231 

Cockney fishermen 232 

Trout haunts at different seasons 234 

Bartlett's and Corey's , 23? 

Chapter XXIX. 

Lumbering 239 

An old resident of the woods 241 

Two hours' sport at " the rapids " 243 

Reminiscences of Gen. Spinner 245 

A fly theory exploded 247 

Chapter XXX. 

Setting-Pole rapids 249 

A few angling reminiscences 250 



XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter XXXI. 

PAGE. 

Stale fish 257 

In a bad fix at Pearsefield falls 258 

Capture of a four pound trout in Hitching's pond 260 

The trout in Bog river and Tupper's lake 262 

Notable places visited 263 

Capture of a seven pound trout in Rangely lake 264 

Reel up 264 



First Visit to the Cascapedia. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



CHAPTER I. 



PREFATOKY AND APOLOGETIC. 

To al you that ben vertuous : gentyll : and free borne I 
wryte and make this fymple treatife folowynge : by whyche 
ye may haue the full craft of anglynge to dyfport you at your 
lufte, to the entent that your aege maye the more fioure and 
the more longer to endure. — \_Treatife of Fy/Jhynge with an 
Angle, 1496. 




^HATEYEE pleasure a veteran 
may find in occasionally recount- 
ing his deeds of valor, the re- 
hearsal at some time becomes 
monotonous. So with these talks 
on Angling. They were well 
enough years ago, but they seem 
to the writer thereof hardly in 
harmony with the assumed gra- 
vity of "furrows," "wrinkles" 
and " hoary locks." ISTot that a true angler ever 
passes the line which takes him into the land of 
ailments and decrepitude. It is the glory of the 
art that its disciples never grow old. The muscles 
may relax and the beloved rod become a burden. 



2 PLEASURES OF ANGLINU. 

but the lire of enthusiasm kindled in youth is 
never extinguished. The time, however, does 
come when one is reluctant to parade the sources 
of even his innocent pleasures, except, perhaps, to 
those " simple wise men " whom he knows to be 
in sympathy with him, and who can appreciate 
the too generally unappreciated truth that that 
pleasure is only worthy the pursuit of men or of 
angels which " worketh no evil." 

But so many kind friends, who find delight in 
the pursuit of the gentle art, have importuned 
me to forego my purpose to be silent, and to 
permit them, just this once, to enjoy what they 
are pleased to characterize as " the pleasure they 
derive " from these rambling jottings, that I have 
reluctantly consented to gratify the few with 
whom I know I shall be en rapport from the start, 
at the hazard of displeasing the many whose high- 
est conceptions of angling have been derived from 
that libelous old adage of " a rod and line, with a 
fool at one end and a fish at the other," and who, 
because of this misconception, have neither sym- 
pathy with nor respect for a recreation which the 
wisest and gentlest and most lovable men of all 
ages have recognized as the best and simplest and 
most effective medicine for mind and body which 
a kind Providence has vouchsafed erring and ailing 
humanity. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 6 

Although my last was my thirty-fifth annual 
visit to angling waters, it was anticipated with 
greater interest and with higher hopes of quiet 
enjoyment than any which had preceded it. And 
this, as all biography teaches, has been the experi- 
ence of all true lovers of the angle. Sir Hum- 
phrey Davy retained his enthusiasm to the last. 
When, like Jacob, he had to lean heavily upon his 
staff, the author of Nodes Ambrosiana would 
wade his favorite streams with all the pleasure of 
his early manhood ; and long after every other de- 
light had waxed and waned, this remained as the 
veritable elixir of perpetual youth. " Kit North's " 
daughter (Mrs. Gordon) gives this charming pic- 
ture of him when a hopeless invalid : 

"And then he gathered around him, when the spring 
morning brought gay jets of sunshine into the little room 
where he lay, the relics of a youthful passion, one that with 
him never grew old. It was an affecting sight to see him 
busy, nay quite absorbed, with the fishing tackle about his 
bed, propped up with pillows — his noble head, yet glorious 
with its flowing locks, carefully combed by attentive hands, 
and falling on each side of his unfaded face. How neatly 
he picked out each elegantly dressed fly from its little 
bunch, drawing it with trembling hand across the white 
coverlet, and then, replacing it in his pocket-book, he 
would tell, ever and anon, of the streams he used to fish 
in of old, and of the deeds he had performed in his child- 
hood and youth." 



4 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

And the experience of the past is that of to-day 
— not among the eminent alone, bnt among the 
lowly as well, who find pnre delight and refresh- 
ing recreation in quiet forests and by the side of 
crystal waters, with no other companions than rod 
and reel, singing birds and summer zephyrs. " As 
Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, c Doubtless God 
could have made a better berry, but doubtless God 
never did ;' and so, if I may be judge, God did 
never make a more calm, quiet, innocent recrea- 
tion than Angling." 

But it would be an inexcusable exaggeration to 
assume that this strong liking grows upon those 
who only engage in the grosser departments of the 
art. The greatest enthusiast soon wearies of bait 
and troll as lures for pike and pickerel, or sun fish 
and perch. As coarse food palls on the palate, so 
the love of angling soon dies out unless it reaches 
up to the higher plane of trout and salmon, lured by 
the tiny fly, kept in check by the gossamer-like 
leader, and conquered by the skillful manipulation 
of the slender rod, which curves to the pressure as 
gracefully as the tall pine to the blast of the tem- 
pest. It is only in this higher department of the 
art that the angler finds the witchery of his voca- 
tion and the octegenarian the ecstacy which gives 
to him ever increasing pleasure and delight. If 
the fascinating art had no other commendation 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 5 

than this, that the pleasure which it affords never 
abates but grows in attractiveness and intensity 
with every repetition, it would be worthy of culti- 
vation, and should commend itself to all who deem 
it possible for old age to have some more tangible 
joy than that afforded by the barren recollections 
of the distant past. 

Nor is it alone during the all too brief period 
in which he is actually engaged in whipping the 
rivers and bagging the spoil that the angler de- 
rives delight from his art. Weeks before it is 
practicable to visit " the woods," or proper to even 
attempt to "entice the finny tribe from their 
aqueous element," the chronic angler finds exquis- 
ite delectation in the needful preparation for his 
sojourn 

Where lakes and rills and rivulets do flow; 
The lofty woods, the forests wide and long, 

Adorned with leaves, and branches fresh and green, 
In whose cool bowers the birds with many a song 

Do welcome with their choir the Summer's Queen; 
The meadows fair, where Flora's gifts among 

Are intermixed, with verdant grass between ; 
The silver-scaled fish that softly swim 
Within the sweet brook's crystal watery stream. 

The recollection of what has been and the an- 
ticipation of what is to be; the quiet discourse 
of men with like tastes, of past successes and of an- 
ticipated triumphs ; reminiscences of river and 
lake and forest and camp-fire, make up a series of 
prospective and retrospective pleasures akin to 



6 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

those experienced by the old soldier fondling his 
trusty matchlock and " fighting his battles o'er 
again." 

And unpacking one's kit is like meeting old 
friends. Every marred fly, every frayed leader, 
every well-worn tip and line and reel, revives 
pleasant memories of river, pool or camp-fire, of 
" rise," or " strike," or struggle, only less real than 
the reality itself, for " only itself can be its parallel." 

No marvel that apostles and prophets, empe- 
rors and kings, philosophers and bishops, soldiers 
and statesmen, scholars and poets, and the quiet, 
gentle and contemplative of all ages and of all pro- 
fessions, have found delight in angling, or that 
they have been made the better and the wiser, and 
the purer and the happier, by its practice. It brings 
its devotee into close and intimate communion 
with nature. It takes him into flowery meads 
and shady woods ; by the side of murmuring 
brooks, silvery cascades and crystal rivers ; through 
deep ravines, sentineled by cloud-clapped moun- 
tains, and into valleys clothed in vernal beauty, 
and made vocal with rippling waters and the 
warbling of feathered songsters. It would have 
been strange indeed if an art which requires such 
surroundings, and which can only be successfully 
practised by the exercise of patience and a quiet 
temper, had not been discovered by Sir Henry 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 7 

Wotton to be "a rest to the mind, a cheerer of 
the spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of un- 
quiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer 
of contentedness ; " or that what thus ministers 
medicine to the mind while it invigorates the 
body, should not prove attractive to all who 

Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing. 

To many this prologue may seem as irrelevant 
as angling seems simple to the uninitiated ; but I 
have been lured on by my theme as I have often 
been by the shady banks and singing waters beside 
which I have cast my fly through the long summer 
day, in sheer forgetfulness of time and distance 
and all else save the consciousness of supreme en- 
joyment. An angler is, from necessity, a rambler ; 
and if he wields his pen as he makes his casts, he 
must needs drop his thoughts as he drops his leader, 
whenever and however the inspiration of the mo- 
ment suggests. 



CHAPTER II. 



ANGLING AND ANGLERS VINDICATED. 



We care not who says, 

And intends it dispraise, 
That an angler to a fool is next neighbor. 

Let him prate ; what care we ; 

We're as honest as he, 
And so let him take that for his labor ! 

— \Charles Cotton. 

HAT good Sir Izaak "Walton said 
two hundred years ago, of those 
who scoff at angling as "a 
heavy, contemptible, dnll recre- 
ation," is quite as appropriate 
for their successors of to-day. 

"You know, gentlemen, it is an 
easy thing to scoff at any art or recre- 
ation: a little wit, mixed with ill- 
nature, confidence and malice, will 
do it ; but though they often venture 
boldly, yet they are often caught, even in their own trap, 
according to that of Lucian, the father of the family of 
scoffers : 

' Lucian well skilled in scoffing, this hath writ: 
Friend, that's your folly which you think your wit ; 
This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear, 
Meaning another, when yourself you jeer! ' 

"If to this you add what Solomon says of scoffers, that 
' they are an abomination to mankind, ' let him that thinks 




PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 9 

fit scoff on, and be a scoffer still ; but I account them ene- 
mies to me and to all that love angling. 

' ' And for you that have heard many grave, serious men 
pity anglers, let me tell you, sir, that there are many who 
are taken by others to be serious and grave men, which 
we contemn and pity, — men that are taken to be grave 
because nature hath made them of a sour complexion, 
money-getting men, men that spend all their time first in 
getting and next in anxious care to keep it ; men that are 
condemned to be rich, and then always busy or discon- 
tented ; for such poor-rich men, we anglers pity them per- 
fectly, and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to 
think ourselves so happy. No, no, sir, we enjoy a con- 
tentedness above the reach of such dispositions. * * * 

" And for our ' simplicity,' if you mean by that a harm- 
lessness, or that simplicity which was usually found in the 
primitive Christians, who were, as most anglers are, quiet 
men and followers of peace — men that were so simply 
wise as not to sell their consciences to buy riches, and 
with them vexation and a fear to die ; if you mean such 
men as lived in those times when there were fewer lawyers, 
when men might have had a lordship conveyed to them 
on a piece of parchment no bigger than your hand, though 
several sheets will not do it safely in this wiser age, — I say, 
sir, if you take us anglers to be such simple men as I have 
spoken of, then myself and those of my profession will be 
glad to be so understood; but if by simplicity you mean 
to express a general defect in those that profess the excel- 
lent art of angling, I hope in time to disabuse you, and 
make the contrary appear so evidently, that, if you will 
have but patience to hear me, I shall remove all the antici- 
pations that discourse, or time, or prejudice, have possess- 
ed you against that laudable and ancient art ; for I know 
it is worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man." 



10 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

They are greatly in error who suppose that all 
there is of fishing is to fish. That is but the body 
of the art. Its soul and spirit is in what the angler 
sees and feels — in the murmur of the brook ; in 
the music of the birds ; in the simple beauty of the 
wild-flowers which peer at him from every nook 
in the valley and from every sunny spot on the 
hill-side ; in the moss-covered rock ; in the ever- 
shifting sunshine and shadow which give ever- 
varying beauty to the sides and summits of the 
mountains ; in the bracing atmosphere which en- 
virons him ; in the odor of the pine and hemlock 
and spruce and cedar forests, which is sweeter to 
the senses of the true woodsman than all the arti- 
ficially compounded odors which impregnate the 
boudoirs of artificial life ; in the spray of the water- 
fall ; in the grace and curve and dash of the swift- 
rushing current ; in the whirl of the foaming eddy ; 
in the transparent depths of the shaded pool where, 
in mid-summer, the speckled trout and silver salm- 
on "most do congregate ;" in the revived appetite ; 
in the repose which comes to him while reclining 
upon his sweet-smelling couch of hemlock boughs ; 
in the hush of the woods when moon and stars 
shine in upon him through his open tent or bark- 
oovered shanty ; in the morning song of the robin ; 
in the rapid-coursing blood, quickened by the pure 
unstinted mountain air which imparts to the lungs 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 11 

the freshness and vigor of its own vitality ; in the 
crackling of the newly kindled camp-fire ; in the 
restored health, and in the thousand other indescri- 
bable and delightful realities and recollections of 
the angler's camp-life on lake or river during the 
season when it is right to " go a-fishing." It is 
these, and not alone or chiefly the mere act of 
catching fish, which render tl e gentle art a source 
of constant and ever-growing pleasure. But to at- 
tain unto the full measure of delight which the 
pastime affords, the angler must not be merely an 
expert in the mechanism of the art. Unless he 
can, withal, appreciate the beauties of nature, and 
" look from nature up to nature's God," he has 
neither the spirit of the old masters of the angle, 
nor a just comprehension of its refining and ele- 
vating possibilities. 

While plying his vocation in these quiet places, 
with no noisy babblers to break in upon his medi- 
tations, with every nerve thrilling with the intens- 
est satisfaction, with the mind as free from rasp- 
ing care as the pure atmosphere in which he is en- 
veloped is from the miasma of the far-off lagoon, 
and with heart and brain in harmonious accord and 
sympathy with the peaceful serenity of the scene 
and the occasion, is it strange that sometimes he 
makes the old woods ring with his shouts in the very 
abandon of delight ? It may not be that these rap- 



12 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

tures come to all the brethren of the angle, but 
they come in full measure to but few besides ; be- 
cause the true angler, " born so," as good Sir Izaak 
hath it, has within himself, more than those who 
have no sympathy with his craft, the elements 
which are necessary to bring him thus en rapport 
with Nature. And I say all this, not to elevate 
the art above what is becoming, but to show that 
the angler, in the quiet pursuit of his craft, finds 
other attractions, purer and higher and more ennob- 
ling, than the mere act of taking fish. Let not 
those who are so "of the earth earthy " as to be 
unable to find any other pleasure in this pastime 
than that derived from " striking " and " killing " 
their prey, write themselves down as the disciples 
of the quiet and gentle Father of the art. For 
they are " bastards and not sons," and merit a 
place rather among the pot-hunters of the guild 
than among its appreciative disciples. 

But fondness for fishing is no proof of sanctifi- 
cation. The selfish man at home is selfish in his 
pleasures ; and there is no pastime where one is 
oftener tempted to be selfish than in angling. 
Few, indeed, are those who would send a friend to 
a favorite pool before he himself had tried it. To 
do so is the very highest proof of magnanimity. 
I have known a few such in my experience — men 
who, if asked for their coat would give their cloak 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 13 

also ; but they are so rare that I can count them 
on my fingers. There comes up before me, as I 
write, the grandest specimen of unselfishness, in 
this regard, who ever cast a fly or kindled a camp- 
fire. If he chanced to strike a " school," or dis- 
covered other signs of abundant sport, his cheery 
shout would always indicate to his companions his 
desire that they might share his good fortune. 
And this was but a type of his character. He was 
and still is a living illustration of the scripture as- 
surance that it is " more blessed to give than to 
receive." And I have just received a note from 
another friend of kindred spirit, who knew no way 
by which he could better emphasize his apprecia- 
tion of a trifling favor than to say : "It will give 
me great pleasure to reciprocate your kindness; 
and should we ever again meet in the forest, and 
beside a pool where the speckled beauties await 
our deceptive lure, I will yield it, and grant to 
you its undisturbed possession." And he would 
keep his promise ; for thirty years of angling has 
rendered him as unselfish in his amusements as he 
is genial in his social life. 



CHAPTER III. 



ANGLING AS A MEDICINE. 



Yf a man lacke leche or medicyne he fhall make thre 
thynges his leche and medicyne : and he fhall nede neuer no 
moo. The fyrfte of theym is a mery thought. The feconde is 
labour not outrageo. The thyrde is dyete mefurable. Fyrfte 
that yf a man wyll euer more be in mery thoughtes and have 
a glad fpyryte, he mult efchewe all contraryous company, and 
all places of debate where he myghte haue any occafyons of 
malencoly. And yf he woll haue a labour not outrageo 
he muft thenne ordeynehim to his hertys eafe and pleafaunce. 
wythout ftudye, penfyfneffe or traueyle, a mery occupacyon, 
which may rejoyce his herte : and in whyche his fpyrytes may 
haue a mery delyte. And 3?f he woll be dyetyd mefurably, he 
muft efchewe all places of ryotte whyche is caufe of furfette 
and fykneffe: and he muft drawe him to places of fwete ayre 
and hungry : and ete nourifhable meetes and dyffyable alfo. 
— [Treatife of Fyfjhynge with an Angle, 1496. 




CONCUR with those who speak 
of the pastime of angling as a 
medicine, not alone from my own 
experience, although that may 
count for something, but from 
the great number of strong men 
with whom I have been brought 
in intimate contact during my 
more than thirty years of out- 
door life, and who, from their 
youth up, have found nothing so invigorating as 
the pure air of the mountains ; nothing so sooth- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING-. 15 

ing, after the toil and worry and fret of business, 
as the silence of the woods ; nothing so pervading 
in its mellowing influence upon nerve and brain 
and spirit as the pleasant murmur of the flowing 
river; nothing so health-giving as the aroma of 
nature's grand forest laboratory ; and nothing so 
exhilarating as the rise and swirl and rush of 
trout or salmon. Those whom I have thus known, 
with scarcely an exception, have preserved the 
vigor of lusty youth longer and more uniformly 
than their contemporaries who have sought other 
means of recuperation and other sources of enjoy- 
ment; — from which I infer either that few but 
those who are blest with robust constitutions ever 
acquire a passion for angling, or that the pastime 
itself creates the healthful vitality which insures a 
vigorous old age. But whether the pastime is 
merely preservative or is really curative in its 
medicinal effects, it is certainly beneficent, and 
deserves the high place it holds in the affections 
of its happy, healthy and enthusiastic votaries. 

However angling may be classed by others — 
whether as a fool's pastime or as a wise man's recre- 
ation — I have always found great pleasure in 
recognizing what its indulgence costs me as so 
much saved from my doctor's bill. And as my 
doctor, who passed his seventy-fifth year before 
" the grasshopper became a burden," was himself 



16 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

a life-long disciple of the gentle art, lie never 
chicled me for my tastes nor coveted what was 
kept from him by their indulgence. And now, 
when this " beloved physician " is " wearing awa' 
to the land o' the leal " as gently and as peacefully 
as the summer's sun retires to its rosy couch, his 
eye receives new lustre as he recalls the pleasant 
hours of his early youth while angling in the lochs 
and burns of his native land and in the brooks and 
rivers of his adopted country. 

And just here is where too many of our people 
make their great mistake. They seek recreation 
to regain health, not to preserve it. If half the 
time were given to keep strong that is consumed in 
the hopeless effort to get strong, there would be 
fewer invalids in the land — fewer men prematurely 
aged, and fewer women bent and broken in the 
midst of their years. " Prevention is better than 
cure," and no class of men are more fortunate than 
those whose love of angling frequently draws them 
from the wearisome cares of business and the suf- 
focating atmosphere of absorbing trade, into the 
green fields and shaded forests, where brook and 
river and lake afford ample pastime and healthful 
recreation. 

I think our people are improving in this regard. 
There are more who appreciate the curative pro- 
perties of change and repose to-day than ever before ; 
and the time is coming when the expenses of a 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 17 

brief vacation, whether to hamlet or palace, to lake 
or river, to forest or sea-shore, to valley or moun- 
tain, will enter into every one's calculations as reg- 
ularly as any other of the necessaries of life. If, as 
some allege, Americans have degenerated in mus- 
cular development and in general physique, it may 
be attributed to their intense and unceasing appli- 
cation to business, rather than to any thing deterio- 
rating in our climate. It is quite as true of the 
worker, whether of brain or of muscle, who never 
gives himself a day's real rest in a score of years, 
as it is of the wicked, " that he shall not live out 
half his days." Those who deliberately and from 
a settled purpose to get gain at any cost, wear them- 
selves out prematurely, are foremost among "the 
wicked" referred to; and the admonition is for 
their benefit quite as much as for the epicure or 
debauchee. 

I remember, many years ago, while " lying round 
loose " for a few days at Lebanon, meeting a friend 
who accosted me with, " Why, D., what are you 
doing here ? I had not heard you were ailing, and 
supposed you enjoyed perfect health." " Yes," 
I replied, "thanks to a kind Providence, I am 
never really sick, and to-day I am as free from ail- 
ment as a sky-lark from bronchitis." " Well, I am 
glad to hear it, certainly ; but if you are perfectly 
well, why are you here % " " To keep well, judge." 
I will never forget the shadow of sadness which 



18 PLEASURES OF ANGLING-. 

crossed his care-worn countenance as he replied : 
" Yours is the true philosophy. I have been work- 
ing very hard for thirty years, and this is my first 
vacation ; and I am here now, not from choice but 
from necessity. My doctor tells me I have impaired 
my constitution by over-work, and that my only 
hope is rest. But I fear I have postponed this rest 
too long. You and those like you, who will have 
your recreation whatever becomes of business, are 
the wisest men. You rest to preserve health and 
not to regain it. I am seeking what, by my too 
close application to business, I have prematurely 
lost ; and it is very doubtful whether I shall find 
what I am seeking." And his fear was prophetic. 
He died in the midst of his years — a man exem- 
plary in all things save in this neglect of himself. 
And for this he paid the inevitable penalty. 

It is a sorry sight to see an over-worked, sallow- 
visaged, prematurely aged man of business, volun- 
tarily digging his own grave. Yet thousands are 
doing this, because they will not seek rest until 
their accumulations will permit them to " retire " to 
enjoy what they have " made," and when such men 
do " retire," they find themselves possessed of a 
fortune and a broken constitution. Who, then, are 
the wise men ? They who work without cessation 
or intermission until they are compelled to seek 
lost health, or they who prefer " prevention " to 
" cure % " If to merely " work " was all of life, even 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 19 

then would it be economy to spend an occasional 
month in the woods ; for here the muscles as well 
as the brain and the heart find recuperative aliment. 
The scripture hath it : " He that maketh haste 
to be rich shall not be innocent " — not that he 
always does wrong to his neighbor, but that he too 
often and most inexcusably does wrong to himself. 

But angling is not alone a health-retaining and 
a health-giving pastime. It is a medicine to the 
mind as well as to the body ; and unlike too many 
of the pleasures of life, it scatters no seeds from 
which the nettle of remorse may grow to sting the 
conscience or drive sunshine from the heart. Like 
the unclouded friendships of youth, it leaves only 
joyous memories. Peter did not weep because he 
took fish with net or angle, but because he did what 
it has become a proverb no angler can do and have 
" luck," and if Uncle Toby's hasty speech had been 
as free from guile as an angler's heart while plying 
his vocation, no angel's tear need to have fallen to 
blot out the record. Blessed pastime, whose day 
never ends, but whose sun casts a perpetual radi- 
ance upon the " simple wise man " who, regularly 
as the return of " the time of the singing of birds," 
sayeth to himself, " I go a-fishing ! " 

We thank God, therefore, for these woods, these 
mountains and these ever-singing waters. They 
are not only the angler's Elysium, but the great 
medicine chest of nature. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



RE-STOCKING SALMON WATERS WHAT HAS BEEN 

AND WHAT MAY BE. 



There's a river in Macedon, and there is also, moreover, a 
river in Monmouth ; it is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is 
out of my prains what is the name of the other river ; but 'tis 
all one, 'tis so like as my fingers is to my fingers, and there 
is salmons in both. — [King Henry V., Act 4, sc. 7. 



HE longing of twenty years has 
been gratified. I have had three 
weeks' salmon fishing in one of 
the best rivers on the continent ; 
and as many of my readers are 
quite as fond of angling as I am 
myself, they will be interested in 
a brief record of my experience 
in this highest department of the 
gentle art. 

All the most desirable salmon rivers in the three 
provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotia, are preserved. Not many years since it be- 
came alarmingly apparent that this kingly fish was 
being rapidly exterminated, and that, unless some 
stringent measures were adopted for its preserva- 
tion, it would speedily become as scarce as it had 
heretofore been abundant. The experience of the 




PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 21 

past sixty years furnished a melancholy lesson of 
the danger of neglect. For within that period, 
every stream, as far south as the river Credit (at 
the head of lake Ontario) and on both sides of 
that lake, lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence 
river down to Quebec, were as prolific in salmon 
as any of the rivers on the gulf or on the coast of 
Labrador. I myself remember when canoe-loads 
of salmon were brought to Toronto from the first- 
named river by the Indians and sold for a penny 
a pound ; and it is within the recollection of the 
" oldest inhabitants " of Sodus, Oswego, Kingston, 
Prescott and Plattsburg, when salmon in the rivers 
in their neighborhood were quite as plenty as 
salmon trout, white fish or black bass now are. 
But now, a salmon in any of the waters south of 
Montreal is as rare as a Spanish mackerel north of 
the Highlands in the Hudson. 

This depletion has resulted from three causes : 
1. The destruction of the fish by net and spear ; 2. 
The establishment of saw-mills and factories ; and 
3. The erection of dams which prevent the fish 
from resorting to their natural breeding places. 
Either of these causes would, in time, perform the 
work of extermination ; but the latter is the most 
effective and the least excusable, because un- 
necessary. A very little attention to the con- 
struction of " ladders " to enable the fish to reach 



22 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

their spawning beds would have insured their an- 
nual return without at all impeding " the march 
of improvement." But this simple provision was 
neglected (if thought of), and what with the net 
and spear and the poisonous substances introduced 
into the waters, the places which once knew the 
salmon in the greatest profusion will now know 
them no more forever — unless, indeed, the more 
perfect knowledge we now have of what is needful 
to restore the waste places on our inland waters 
shall be brought into practical use by individual 
enterprise or by governmental interposition. 

Something is being done in this direction by 
our own State, but so parsimoniously and upon so 
petty a scale that very little can be accomplished. 
Our legislators, however, may do better as they 
grow wiser, although our inland fisheries may never 
become what they have been. There are difficul- 
ties in the way which neither care, science nor 
liberality can overcome. But enough may be 
accomplished, at a cost which would be voted a 
mere bagatelle when contrasted with the results, 
to bring back to the waters of our State a moderate 
abundance of this delicious fish, for which we are 
now dependent, for the most part, upon the dis- 
tant provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick and 
ISTova Scotia. Indeed, even though E"ew York 
should continue to creep in the laggard way in 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 23 

which she has begun, there is still hope that some- 
thing may be achieved in restoring salmon to the 
streams flowing into lake Ontario. The Upper 
Canada government has authorized two or three 
breeding establishments west of Kingston, and 
they have been so carefully and so wisely super- 
vised by its agent (a Mr. Wilmot), that the very 
best results are foreshadowed. Several streams 
have been stocked, and already thousands of young 
fish, which were hopefully cast upon the waters, 
have, with that curious and mysterious instinct 
which is as unerring as the sun, returned to vindi- 
cate their sagacity and to encourage the agents of 
the government in their beneficent labors. If our 
own State authorities shall be equally wise and 
quadruple the powers and resources of our intelli- 
gent fish commissioners, the next generation may 
not be able to buy salmon for a penny a pound, 
but they will be procurable in such abundance as 
to render them as available as white fish or shad. 

It was this experience of the past sixty years, 
and the recollection of the total depletion of the 
once prolific streams emptying into the upper St. 
Lawrence and lake Ontario, which impressed the 
authorities of the three lower Provinces with the 
necessity of enacting some stringent laws to pre- 
vent their own waters from becoming equally 
" barren and unfruitful." The first step was to 



24 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

declare all the rivers (with a few exceptions) closed 
to all comers not duly authorized to fish there by 
the proper authorities. Then followed the appoint- 
ment of a commission of fisheries — one commis- 
sioner for each province. These officials are given 
the general supervision of all the inhibited rivers — 
issuing licenses to those who are permitted to fish 
with seines in tide-water, and leases to those who 
wish the rivers for purely angling purposes. The 
prices paid for licenses for seine-fishing vary with 
the presumed prolific character of the fishing 
grounds, from $100 to $500 ; and so of the rivers 
leased to anglers, varying from $100 to $600. The 
latter is the annual sum paid by the lessee of the 
Cascapedia, where I have had my first experience 
in salmon fishing. The seines are not to obstruct 
the entire of the channel in any river, and ordina- 
rily do not cover more than one-tenth of the water 
surface ; so that, while many fish are caught, as is 
proper, ten times as many find an unobstructed 
passage to the fresh water, which they instinctively 
seek, with the regularity of the seasons, to breed. 
The leases for angling include all of the rivers lying 
above tide- water, and restrict the lessee to hook and 
line. Spearing and all other modes of fish-taking 
(except with the fly) are prohibited under penalties 
which would be deemed severe were they not indis- 
pensable to the preservation of the waters from 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 25 

voracious pot-hunters and inveterate poachers. Each 
river has a warden, appointed by the fish commis- 
sioners or lessee, and are paid a moderate stipend 
(from $50 to $250) jointly by the government and 
the lessee. This warden designates trustworthy 
parties in the neighborhood as watchers, who are 
stimulated to a careful discharge of their duties by 
the lion's share of the penalties which may be im- 
posed upon the violators of the law. By these 
means, the rivers are, as a general thing, well pre- 
served — so well that it is the verdict, not only of 
the authorities but of the most intelligent residents 
on the preserved streams, that- the salmon are to- 
day many times more numerous than they were 
before the rivers passed under the supervision of 
their wardens. This testimony was more especially 
given in regard to the Cascapedia, where I fished. 

The inhibition is, of course, distasteful to the 
people, who have heretofore had free access to 
these rivers ; and they are not slow to give expres- 
sion to their feelings. Indeed, one must have a 
profound reverence for the law or an intense terror 
of its penalties, who, with a scant larder, can wit- 
ness a dozen salmon leaping from the pool in front 
of his log cabin, without either " casting " for them 
or anathematizing the law which prevents him 
from doing so. A free and independent " Yankee " 
would no more brook such an interference with 
4 



26 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

his rights, or think of going to bed hungry with 
such an appetizing morsel impudently flopping his 
tail at him, than he would of turning either the 
back of his hand to a friend or the back of his coat 
to an enemy. And this, not because he would be 
oblivious of the propriety of preserving the fish 
from extermination, but because he would demon- 
strate to his own satisfaction not only that " self- 
preservation is the first law of nature," but that 
" necessity knows no law," and that when salmon 
thus generously say to him, " Come and take me," 
no government has a right to say, " You shan't do 
it." Superadded to this would be the antagonism 
excited by the reflection that, in this case, the pro- 
hibition is against nature and the right which every 
man has to the waters and all that is therein in 
front of his own premises. Many even here, who 
are not Yankees, believe that if this right were 
asserted it would hold good — unless it had been 
voluntarily surrendered or otherwise legally secured 
by the government. Fortunately, however, on 
most of the salmon rivers, the government is the 
principal owner of the lands on either side of them ; 
and where it is not, if the question were raised, 
some mode would be devised to effect the benefi- 
cent ends sought by this law of inhibition, with- 
out wholly ignoring this ancient right. 

So far as the people here are concerned, they 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 27 

seem to generally acquiesce (though not without 
grumbling) in the law as entirely within the prov- 
ince of the government and as promotive of the 
best good of the greatest number. That there is 
frequent poaching, the local court records furnish 
abundant evidence. The flambeaux and spear have 
been too long in use and have too long afforded 
both sport and provender to be all at once aban- 
doned. But no mercy is shown to those who are 
caught. A heavy fine, ranging from $5 to $50 
and the forfeiture of the canoe with its contents, 
are the sure penalty of those found repeating the 
offense. The whites bear it with the meekness 
and patience becoming the law-loving subjects of her 
gracious majesty ; but when " Lo, the poor Indian " 
finds himself mulcted in damages and robbed of 
his canoe (which is at once his lumber wagon and 
his coach-and-four) he gives vent to something more 
emphatic if not more expressive than a sigh for the 
good old days when he was " boss " of the conti- 
nent. 

The prohibition, however, does not extend to 
trout — which abound in all the salmon rivers to an 
extent which would render each one of them a dis- 
tinct and separate paradise to the trout angler. Any 
resident on the preserved rivers may fish for trout ; 
and if, while thus engaged, they have the misfor- 
tune to hook a salmon, I have never heard of an 



28 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

instance where he was shaken off as an intruder. 
In such a case, the offense, I believe, is generally 
forgiven by the warden if reported to him. That 
a great many are thus taken (always accidentally, 
of course,) there is no doubt. But these occasional 
mistakes have no perceptible effect upon the run 
of the fish, and are wisely winked at by those 
whose duty it is to see that no salmon goes into 
the pickle-barrel without first paying tribute to 
the Queen. 



CHAPTER V. 

WHAT THE PROVINCES ARE DOING, AND WHAT 
NEW YORK SHOULD DO. 

That which is good to be done cannot be done too soon ; 
and if it is neglected to be done early, it will frequently hap- 
pen that it will not be done at all. — \BisJwp Mant. 



CAN" pay the Provincial authori- 
ties no higher compliment than 
to say that, so far as I am able 
to judge, they never do things 
by halves. What they deem it 
necessary to do, they deem it 
wise to do well. This is a good 
rule for all governments not 
only, but for all individuals as 
well. The world has lost at 
least a century in achievement, because so much 
that has been attempted has lacked the stamp of 
thoroughness in its prosecution. " A lick and a 
promise " is the homely adage sometimes applied 
to the imperfect results of slip-shod labor. The 
intelligent observer has daily cause to deplore the 
fallibility of human nature when he contrasts the 
golden promises with the leaden performances 
of men in authority. If all that kings and presi- 
dents, and cabinets and congresses, from the days 




30 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

of Charlemagne until now, have decreed should he 
had come to pass, the millenium would have been 
at least as old as our republic, and government de- 
faulters and lecherous scandal-mongers would have 
been as scarce as chub in a salmon pool. But, un- 
fortunately, only a beggarly moiety of what was 
promised ever found embodiment in performance, 
and most of what was attempted, looking to the 
amelioration and elevation of the race, was prose- 
cuted so feebly — with so little of the essential 
element of thoroughness — that the devil has sel- 
dom had occasion to thrust out his cloven foot to 
stop the car of progress. 

By which digression I simply mean to say, that 
when the Provincial authorities determined to pre- 
serve their salmon fisheries, they determined to 
make thorough work of it — to replenish as well 
as to preserve — not only to guard what came to 
them in a natural way, but to avail themselves of 
all the artificial processes which practical science 
had developed. Hence, besides fish commissioners 
and fish wardens and a fish police, they recognize 
and employ fish breeders — men of experience, in- 
telligence and integrity (alas! what a rarity) to 
whom they give carte blanche (as unrestricted as 
that given to Adam) to go forth and replenish the 
waters with this king of fish and rarest morsel that 
ever melted on a gourmand's palate. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 31 

And this is being done — not (as in New York) 
by a beggarly contribution to a petty hatching- 
house which one might cover with a good sized 
Mexican sombrero, situated so remote from the 
natural haunts of the most valuable fish sought to 
be propagated that it requires even more care 
and skill to transport the tender fry where they 
are needed than it does to catch them after they 
are full grown. These provincial establishments 
are placed where nature has placed a man's nose 
— just where they are needed, and just where, like 
the gratuitously distributed Pacific railroad stock, 
they can " do the most good" — on the natural 
salmon rivers, where the raw material is at hand 
(this is not intended as a pun upon the mode 
of manipulation), and where the product, like all 
good deeds cast upon the world's waters, will " re- 
turn after many days," to fill the nets of the fish- 
erman, the exchequer of the realm, and the pickle- 
barrel (and stomach) of the consumer. If, as is the 
case, the spawn or fry is needed for remote waters, 
either to introduce or to replenish, they are quite 
as available for this purpose as if, as at our State 
hatching-house, the raw material had to be im- 
ported before it can be dispensed — with the single 
exception of brook trout, which are as indigenous 
to Caledonia brook as salmon are to the Cascapedia. 

These provincial hatching-houses, like the salmon 



32 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

fry which they are to furnish, are still in their 
infancy. Only two or three are yet erected ; but 
the work is going on, and in a very few years there 
will be one or more on every principal salmon river 
in the three provinces. Mr. Wilmot, the son of the 
gentleman who began the business on lake Ontario 
several years since, has charge of them, and from 
what I saw of him during my recent visit, I am 
quite sure that he is the right man in the right place. 

I have said this much on this subject of fish 
breeding, not because I object to what has been 
done at home, but with the earnest hope that what 
I have said or shall say may stimulate our legisla- 
ture to do more. Our fish commissioners have 
done well with the scanty means placed at their 
disposal, and Seth Green, their zealous and intelli- 
gent agent, deserves the thanks and gratitude of 
the whole people. But you might as well try to 
scoop out lake Ontario with a landing net as to 
properly replenish our barren waters with the fish 
natural to them from the product of the all too 
limited establishment at Mumford. 

We are mercifully told that Providence 
winked at what was done foolishly " in the time 
of man's ignorance." And while legislators were 
confessedly and excusably "ignorant" of the re- 
sults of fish-breeding, no one was disposed to find 
fault with their excessive parsimony. But this 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 33 

time of excusable ignorance is past ; and now the 
man who does not comprehend the grand possibili- 
ties of fish-breeding, and who is unwilling to give 
his vote for its extension, is quite unfit to represent 
an intelligent constituency, and is himself a — well, 
a fish which is far less attractive to an artistic eye 
than to an epicurean palate. The Mumford hatch- 
ing-house and its zealous manipulator have re- 
turned to the State and country a thousand fold for 
all they have expended. But " the little-one " 
should " become a thousand." From having the 
only source of supply so diminutive and so obscurely 
located that a stranger would waste as much time 
in discovering its whereabouts as Diogenes did in 
his vain search for an honest man, Seth Green 
should be made the superintendent of State hatch- 
ing-houses at a dozen points in the Adirondacks, on 
lake Ontario, on the Hudson, and on several other 
waters, so that fish might be made a source of as 
great wealth to the State and of as great benefit to 
the people as the hog and poultry crop combined. 

Anglers may be deemed a useless race by men 
who haven't juice enough in their composition to 
perspire with the thermometer at 90, nor muscle 
enough in their right arm to cast an eight ounce 
fly rod; but if their love of the sport and their 
desire, in season, to be able to effectively cast their 
lines in pleasant places, shall result in such an 
5 



34 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

enlightenment of the people and in such a concen- 
tration of public sentiment as to compel such wise 
and liberal legislation as will insure the replenish- 
ment of all our depleted streams with the fish 
indigenous to them, they will deserve the bene- 
dictions of all who would much rather feast and 
fatten upon the toothsome flakes of trout and 
salmon than grow lean and cadaverous in sipping 
the imaginary " nectar of the gods." 

I find myself drawing toward my theme as a 
prudent general invests a beleaguered city, by very 
gradual approaches. But few fish are more prolific 
than the salmon, and those who write about them 
should be excused if in this they are like them. 
Besides, the salmon is the king of fish, and all 
kings have many subjects. And still besides, — a 
salmon pool can only be fished successfully when 
approached with caution. I am acting upon this 
principle in penning these rambling chapters. I 
do not intend to hazard the satisfaction I find in 
composing them, or the diversion which awaits 
those who shall have the good taste to read them, 
by any premature denouement. Half the pleasure 
of the " good times " of life is lost by the rush 
and hurry with which they are begun and ended. 
Just now, for the first time in half a century, I am 
in no hurry. It is a new sensation and I rather 
like it. 



CHAPTEE VL 



HOBBIES AND SOME OF THEIR EIDERS. 

The variety and contrary choices that men make in the 
world argue that the same thing is not good to every man 
alike. This variety of pursuits shows that every one does 
not place his happiness in the same thing. — {Locke. 




T is not true that " every man has 
his hobby." The great mass of 
men have no special sonrce of 
pleasurable diversion. They are 
content to walk the weary tread- 
mill of life in stoical monotony, 
if they can but have the barren 
assurance that "their oil and 
their wine increaseth." But with 
the man who has his " hobby " it 
is not so. Equally with others, he has respect unto 
his larder and his bank account, and is as willing 
as the most thoroughly devoted man of business to 
have " both ends meet " seasonably and symmetri- 
cally. He has no less zeal or energy, and is quite 
as industrious and thrifty as his neighbor; but 
through the rift in the cloud of his daily struggle, 
he catches frequent glimpses of his beloved " hob- 
by," and his heart throbs and his step becomes 



36 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

elastic as the hour approaches when he can " take 
a ride." It may be that the " hobby " is trotted 
out daily in the form of a rose-bud, a sheet of 
music, the framework of some impracticable piece 
of mechanism, an unsolvable problem in mathe- 
matics, or a newly-devised " fly," lovingly fondled 
in anticipation of its grand achievements upon 
some remote sunny holiday, when the dear 
" hobby " shall prance by the side of a murmur- 
ing meadow brook or a babbling mountain rivu- 
let. However, wherever or whenever ridden, 
(whether with every sunset or with the wan- 
ing moon, or only once a year when trout and 
salmon are in season,) it is well to have a harm- 
less " hobby " standing in some cozy nook of the 
imagination, to be led out at will, and to be 
straddled and ridden, when the muscles ache, when 
the brain is weary and when the heart is sad. The 
man without a " hobby " may be a good citizen 
and an honest fellow, but he can have but few 
golden threads running through the web or woof 
of his monotonous existence. 

Of all the " hobbies " known to advanced civil- 
ization, none is more harmless, none more exhila- 
rating, none more healthful and none which ambles 
more gently than that of the angler. The months 
of grooming — of anticipation and of preparation 
— are only less delightful than the pleasurable 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 37 

emotions experienced when, fully mounted, the 
happy rider " whips " his way through trout-brook 
and salmon-pool, buoyant in spirit, inhaling new 
life and vigor with every breath of the pure moun- 
tain air which environs him, with his heart pulsa- 
ting as if every drop of blood was an electric 
battery, with every nerve thrilled by the rush and 
swirl preluding the coveted " strike," with the 
well-poised line, tensioned by the " pull " of a 
twenty pound salmon, droning out seolian music, 
and with every nerve and fibre thrumming an ac- 
companiment, embodying more of entrancing mel- 
ody than ever Strauss or Paganini dreamed of. 
"With such a " hobby," susceptible of exciting such 
pleasurable emotions, upon which to take an oc- 
casional ramble through " the green pastures and 
beside the still waters " of life, should it be deemed 
strange that anglers are merry men, contemplative 
philosophers and enthusiasts in their love of all 
that is grand and beautiful and sublime in nature ? 
I am glad to know that the number who ride 
this harmless " hobby " is constantly increasing. 
When men through eleven months of weary toil 
and labor can find pleasure in anticipating the 
coming of the month " of all the year the best," 
when they will find inexpressible delectation in 
admiring the graceful movements of the swaying 
forest, in reposing beneath its genial shades, in list- 



38 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

ening to the music of bird and brook and mountain 
torrent, and in casting for speckled tront or silver 
salmon in pool or rivulet, they will not err who 
write them down as happier men than their neigh- 
bors, and as all the better for this happiness. 

There is enough in the minor departments of 
angling to render it attractive. Sea and lake, as 
well as brook and river, afford pleasant pastime, 
but salmon fishing is confessedly the highest round 
in the ladder, whether because of the great weight, 
strength and beauty of the fish, the skill required 
to lure it to the fly, to strike it when lured, or to 
kill it when struck. "Ho other fish is so shy, so 
kingly, or so full of game. To kill a thirty or 
forty pound salmon, is to graduate with all the 
honors. If but a comparatively few Americans, 
masters of every other department of the art, have 
attained unto this coveted dignity, it is from want 
of opportunity rather than from want of skill. 
"We have no salmon rivers within our territory 
(where the fish will take the fly) this side the 
Rocky Mountains. Hence the great mass of our 
anglers, however skilled and enthusiastic, have 
deemed themselves to have reached the greatest 
available elevation in the art when they have 
killed a four, six, eight or ten pound trout. The 
single step forward can only be taken by a journey 
to Oregon or California, or by a trip to the Coast 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 39 

of Labrador or the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, where 
the restrictions are such that only a fortunate few 
are able to gratify their ambitious longings. There 
are probably not more than a dozen men in the 
State of New York, outside the city, who have 
killed a salmon. I can remember but a single per- 
son in our immediate neighborhood, beside myself, 
who has been so fortunate. Dean Sage, late of 
Cohoes, a young gentleman of rare skill with rod 
and reel and a most enthusiastic angler, had his 
first fortnight on a salmon river in July. It was a 
fortnight of exquisite pleasure, the recollection of 
which will make the present summer ever memor- 
able in his log-book of years. There are, perhaps, a 
score or two in New York, and as many more scat- 
tered from Portland to New Orleans, who know 
what it is to be electrified by the " rise " of a thirty 
pound fish. But the number is annually increas- 
ing, and a great multitude in the next generation 
— if salmon breeding is pushed as it should be -»■ 
will be able to enter into the feelings of grand old 
Christopher North when he gently caressed his pet 
salmon-fly on his death-bed. 

It is different in the Provinces. There are en- 
thusiastic salmon fishers in every town, from To- 
ronto to Halifax. It was my great pleasure, dur- 
ing my recent visit to St. John, to form the ac- 
quaintance of some of the best of them. And I 



40 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

found them to be just what all true anglers ought 
to be, and what most true anglers are, large-hearted 
merry men, kindly natured, robustly gentle, hos- 
pitable as dame nature amid whose grandeur and 
beauty and repose they hold their annual revels, 
intelligent and obliging, full of enthusiasm, arid 
so open-hearted and open-handed as to captivate 
and charm all who are made the delighted recipi- 
ents of their hospitality. 

Foremost among this bevy of gentlemen I may 
mention Chief Justice Kitchie, no less respected 
for his virtues than honored for his learning, 
whose more than three score years, because of his 
constant walks and wanderings as an angler, have 
failed to check his elasticity or dampen his enthu- 
siasm. I have pleasant camp memories of this 
venerable angler — of his genial dbwidon, of his 
pleasant jest, of his exhaustless fund of anecdote 
and incident, of his hearty laugh — a laugh so 
hearty as to give the world assurance of an honest 
man, and of that robust health which is the in- 
separable companion of what an eccentric Scotch 
philosopher deemed the only requisites of true feli- 
city, viz : " a clear conscience and open bowels " — 
uttering no word which might not be spoken in 
the home circle, and yet overflowing with mellow 
hilarity. Happy Province which has such a Chief 
Justice, and happy Chief Justice who has a con- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 41 

stituency who do not believe that he either com- 
promises his dignity or soils his ermine by annually 
" going a-fishing ! " 

Gen. "Warnek, the American Consul, another St. 
John gentleman, is equally fond of rod and reel. 
He holds his office as the reward of faithful and intel- 
ligent service in field and forum. His appointment 
was as deserved as it is popular. By the wise and 
prudent manner in which he administers the duties 
of his office, he vindicates the sagacity of those who 
selected him for the position he honors. He is 
respected alike and equally by all Americans who 
have occasion to call upon him in his official capa- 
city and by those who have had the good fortune 
to enjoy the elegant hospitality of his happy home. 
Although bearing an "empty sleeve" — the badge 
of valor and gallant service — he is an expert ang- 
ler, whose love of the sport made him the lessee of 
the river we fished, and whose achievements with 
the rod and reel bear honorable comparison with 
those of the most accomplished of his compeers. 

Mr. Nicholson, another member of the honor- 
able guild, took his first lessons in angling in the 
lakes of Killarney, and no man is now more 
successful in "enticing the wary salmon to his 
barbed hook." If the records of his wonderful 
scores sometimes excite a doubt in the mind of 
the novice, it is a real pleasure to " make no sign," 
6 



4:2 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

the stories are told with such infinite gusto and 
good humor. For my own part, I received in per- 
fect faith every recital of his achievements — even 
that of the two hundred and six salmon killed in 
three weeks last year, and of the one hundred and 
twenty-two killed in half the time last June. That 
of a year ago was a wonderful catch — probably 
unsurpassed by any thing which ever before 
passed into the angling records of either the old 
world or the new. 

Mr. Foebes does honor to old Harvard, whether 
as a barrister or as an angler. But his virtues 
shine out most conspicuously in his friendly offices 
and courteous bearing. If, as I have no doubt, 
he is as attentive to the interests of his clients 
as he is to the comfort of his friends, he should 
gather a rich harvest from his profession. 

Mr. Spuer is the veteran angler of St. John. 
He has fished in all waters for twenty years, and 
knows more of the haunts and habits of the sal- 
mon than any other man in the province. He 
is a walking encyclopedia, and finds no greater 
pleasure than in dispensing his accumulated wis- 
dom to those who are anxious to learn. It was 
fitting, therefore, that he should have taken the 
champion fish of the season — a forty-eight pounder 
— the grandest trophy attainable to mortal fisher- 
man. It was a well-meant compliment, uttered 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 43 

by the unfortunate punster of our party, when he 
said : " This noble fish shall Spurr me on to a 
still grander achievement." 

Messrs. Hanford and Rolf and Smith and 
Headlet and Cennet, and still others whose 
names but not whose good offices are forgotten, 
constitute a coterie of anglers and gentlemen 
(synonyms usually,) of whom any city might be 
proud, and whom it will always be a pleasure to 
remember. 



CHAPTER VII. 



WHO WENT A-FISHENTG, AND HOW THEY 
REACHED THE RIVER. 



I now believed 
The happy day approach'd, nor were 
My hopes deceived. 

— \Dryden. 



^VERY one, I presume, looks for- 
ward hopefully to the realization 
of some fancied good, or to the 
attainment of some coveted plea- 
sure. Life would be even more 
sombre and leaden than it is but 
for this ever-living hopefulness. 
It is the hidden sunshine which 
gives to the darkest cloud its 
silver lining — the unseen hand 
which "smoothes the wrinkled front of weary 
care." No matter that these pleasant visions 
seldom assume the form and substance of reality. 
" Castles in the air " have often happier tenants 
than those on terra firrna. 

The enthusiastic angler is never content with 
minor achievements. His constant expectation is 
that every new cast will afford him some new con- 




PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 45 

quest, and that the grand sport of to-day will be 
excelled by the grander sport of to morrow. Of 
no others can it be said more truthfully : 

" Hope springs eternal in the human breast ; " — 

hope not merely to capture the best of the fish for 
which he is angling, but hope that at some time not 
far off he may capture his proper quota of the 
gamiest fish that swims. During many more than 
a score of years I have found great pleasure in 
angling for trout, but at no time in all these years 
have I ceased to hope that sometime in the golden 
future kind fortune would favor me with the oppor- 
tunity to kill a salmon. And at length, after many 
years of " hope deferred," the opportunity came, 
the excursion was projected, the waters were 
reached, the cast was made, hope became fruition 
and the coveted result was achieved. A great 
many pleasurable " first times " are jotted upon the 
memory of every one — the merchant's first suc- 
cessful venture, the lawyer's first case and the poli- 
tician's first triumph — but none of these, nor all of 
them combined, can compare with the delight which 
comes to the enthusiastic angler from the rise and 
swirl and strike and capture of his first salmon. 
I speak from experience, and propose, for the delec- 
tation of those who are still hoping, to enter into 
particulars, not of that single incident alone, but of 



46 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

the many incidents which made our three weeks' 
sojourn on the Cascapedia delightfully enjoyable. 

I owe to Gen. Arthur, Collector of the Port of 
New York, the opportunity of experiencing what 
will be " a joy forever." For several years that 
gentleman has given his summer vacations to sal- 
mon fishing. There are few more expert anglers 
and none who have a higher appreciation of the 
gentle art. His scores have always indicated skill 
and perseverance — the two essentials of success. 
The party, of which the General was Chief, con- 
sisted also of R. G. Dun, of New York, D. Archie 
Pell, of Staten Island, and the writer hereof. Mr. 
Dun, like the General, had had several years' suc- 
cessful experience. Col. Pell (like his honored 
father before him) had had large practice in every 
other department of angling. But, with myself, 
he was about to try his " 'prentice han' " on salmon 
waters and to make his first cast for his diploma as 
a graduate in the high school of the craft. I could 
not have fallen into better hands, nor have been 
brought into the association of gentlemen in more 
perfect accord and sympathy in all hopeful antici- 
pation of the great pleasure in reserve for us. 

The outfit for salmon fishing, though somewhat 
expensive if of the best — and the best, in strength 
if not in beauty, it always should be — is both com- 
pact and simple, consisting of a rod (costing any- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 47 

where from $35 to $60 in New York, or from $15 
to $30 in St. John), an India-rubber reel ($15), an 
oil-boiled silk line, 300 or 400 feet in length ($8 
to $12), a dozen double gut leaders with single gut 
droppers ($6), five or six dozen assorted salmon flies 
($6 a dozen in New York or less than half that 
price in St. John), and a steel gaff ($2). The rods 
and lines may be duplicated if "expense is no 
object ; " but only by some unforeseen accident or 
inexcusable carelessness need either the one or the 
other give out. No one is more merciless with 
rod and line than myself, and yet neither failed 
me during our expedition. Instances of failure, 
however, to some of the party (but not from any 
want of skill) occurred, and under circumstances 
which sorely tried the saintly tempers of these 
unfortunate victims of misplaced confidence. But 
as a rule, any strain beyond what a moderately well 
made rod will bear safely would almost certainly 
result in the loss of your fish ; and the oiled line, if 
not imperceptibly defective, has the capacity to 
resist five times the pressure which should ever be 
employed to kill a salmon. Its great weight is 
given to it, not to render it secure merely, but 
rather to adapt it the better for casting. 

In regard to supplies, whatever is needful can be 
better secured, and much more moderately, at 
Quebec or St. John than at any point this side the 



4-8 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

line. But what may be deemed " needful " depends 
entirely upon the tastes and appetites of the pros- 
pective consumers. One gentleman whom we met 
took, with himself and two guides, in a single 
canoe, all that he considered " needful " for a thirty 
days' sojourn, while another loaded two canoes, 
besides the one he occupied himself, with what he 
thought " needful " for a fortnight's excursion. I 
can only say to whoever may be anxious on this 
point, as was kindly said to our party, that it is 
well to " live low on the river." If, however, the 
advice shall be as remorselessly disregarded by any 
of my readers who may be contemplating a trip, as 
it was by our commissary, I may regret it but I 
shall not be surprised. 

In reaching any of the rivers on the Bay of Cha- 
leur, or in that immediate neighborhood, the most 
direct route is by rail to St. John and Shediac and 
by steamboat to Dalhousie ; but the journey can be 
pleasantly and almost as expeditiously made by 
steamer from Quebec. We chose the former route, 
and it was high-noon of the sixth day after we left 
New York before we pitched our tents and pre- 
pared for service. Next year, however, there will 
be an all-rail route most of the way, if not quite 
through to Dalhousie — which, by the line of travel, 
is full three hundred miles from St. John. 

[Now, April, 1876, there is an all-rail route to 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 49 

Dalhousie, via Boston, Portland, Bangor, St. John 
and Moncton. Early in June of this year, it is 
expected that a much shorter route will be open 
from Montreal and River du Loup, and so across 
to the Bay of Chaleur. This route will greatly 
lessen the distance to all the most noted salmon 
rivers in the provinces.] 

There was, in the summer of 1874, a provoking 
loss of twenty-four hours in making this journey, 
as the time-tables were arranged, there being no 
night train between Bangor and St. John, nor 
between St. John and Shediac. So that, unless 
you started right, you were detained a night at 
each of these cities. But this proved no incon- 
venience to those who " took no note of time," 
for the principal hotels at Bangor and St. John 
are tidy, home-like and elegant. This is especi- 
ally true of the hotel at St. John (the Victoria), 
which ranks with the best in any city. But to 
those whose time is limited, and who would rather 
spend a day on a salmon river than a month in a 
palace, it is not so pleasant. 

Even those in a hurry find some compensation 
for this delay in the attractive scenery which re- 
veals itself at frequent intervals in the journey. It 
is something to see the thrifty towns below Bangor 
and the vast quantities of lumber and logs which 
fill the rivers along which the road passes. It is 
7 



50 PLEASTTKES OF ANGLING. 

something, also, to see the rise and fall of the tide 
at St. John (from forty to fifty feet), the grand 
scenery with which that city is environed, and to 
glance at the old town itself, which, in its shipping, 
warehouses and marts of trade, bears the impress of 
real enterprise and thrift. Personally I was glad of 
the delay, for I had before no just conception either 
of the commercial-like character and future possi- 
bilities of St. John nor of the prolific character of 
the highly cultivated farms in its neighborhood and 
along the eighty miles of road to Shediac. It is by 
no means the dilapidated city, nor is the country 
about it the barren and glacier-like region I had 
fancied. Its fogs, however, are rather frequent for 
comfort, and the recollection of them somewhat 
dampens the enthusiasm with which I might other- 
wise have entered upon a description, in detail, of 
what, between the fogs, delighted our vision. 

There are a score of excellent salmon rivers on 
the G-ulf of St. Lawrence and the bays connected 
therewith ; but the fish in none of them excel in 
size (if they do in number) those of the Cascapedia 
— which empties into the Bay at ISTew Richmond, 
a pleasant little hamlet some thirty miles distant 
(and on the opposite side of the Bay) from Dalhou- 
sie, where we left the steamer and took a chaloupe, 
on board of which we spent several tedious hours, 
vainly whistling for the wind and uttering jDointless 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 51 

witticisms against those whose distorted mental 
vision permits them to speak ravishingly of the 
entrancing beanty of a " sea of glass." Any thing 
seemed preferable to the monotony of snch a cruise 
— a storm, a hurricane, a cyclone even, would have 
been welcomed ; any thing but the persistent rain- 
fall which came down just in time to drench our 
garments though not to dampen our spirits as we 
disembarked at New Richmond and received " e'en 
a Hieland welcome " from H. R. Montgomery, 
Esq., to whose kindly offices we were commended 
by those who knew how surely his hearty courtesy 
and genial hospitality would obliterate the recollec- 
tion of any trifling mishap which might have be- 
fallen us by the way. Here, too, we met Mr. Dim- 
mice:, the warden of the river, who had, in the 
most prompt and business-like manner, responded 
to our telegraphed request to have canoes and 
guides in readiness npon our arrival. 'Not only 
were they in readiness, but they glided out from 
the shore at our approach, each canoe (sitting like 
a swan upon the water) being propelled by two 
paddlers (an Indian and a white man) who were to 
accompany us during our three weeks' sojourn on 
the river. Our traps and persons were speedily 
transferred to these frail looking but wonderfully 
buoyant craft, when we began what proved to be 
the most delightful pilgrimage I ever made to any 
waters. 



CHAPTEK Till. 

OTJR FIRST CAMP AND A HEARTY WELCOME. 

His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning ; 

There's some conceit or other likes him well 

When that he bids " Good morrow" with such spirit. 

— [Shakspeare. 




ilHE bark-canoes used upon these 
rivers are fragile-looking but 
strong and buoyant. They are 
not only more steady and secure, 
in a heavy sea, than the boats 
used in the Adirondacks, but are 
capable of bearing heavier bur- 
dens. On rivers where the cur- 
rent is swift and the rapids heavy 
(as in the Cascapedia) two men 
to propel them up stream with 
safety and comfort ; and even then an average of 
two miles an hour is considered a fair rate of speed. 
The boatmen sit when paddling or stand when 
polling, (one at each end) while the passenger 
makes himself very comfortable on a slightly ele- 
vated seat in the middle of the canoe. 

A novel, picturesque and exciting scene was 



are 



necessary 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 53 

presented as our six canoes moved off, in " Indian 
file," up the rapid waters of the Cascapedia. The 
poles used are tipped with an iron tube, and make 
pleasant music as they strike upon the pebbly 
bottom of the river in perfect time. 

The afternoon was charming. The sun shone out 
in full lustre, but the cool breeze rendered the atmos- 
phere inexpressibly delightful. The river is broad 
and its waters are as transparent as crystal. The 
foliage on either side was rich and varied, and the 
grand old hills which rise, most of the way, almost 
perpendicularly from the water, were clothed in 
gorgeous apparel. All our surroundings — the 
mode of conveyance, our dusky boatmen, the 
scenery, the object of our journey and the sport 
anticipated — were novel and inspiriting, and the 
four hours consumed in reaching our first camping 
ground, were four hours of unalloyed pleasure, 
to which the excitement of ascending the seemingly 
unascendable rapids largely contributed. To as- 
cend rapids safely not only involves hard work but 
a quick eye and a steady hand. To allow the im- 
petuous current to obtain a moment's advantage 
would whirl the frail bark out of its course in an 
instant, and send it flying down upon the rocks to 
be dashed to pieces. It is, however, far less dan- 
gerous, though harder work, to go up than to come 
down these rapids. And yet, during the three 



54: PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

weeks we were on the river, a hundred rapids, in 
which an Adirondack boat could not have lived a 
moment, were passed in perfect safety. The de- 
scent is especially exhilarating. The skill with 
which rocks and breakers and foam are avoided or 
surmounted, is a source of constant wonder and 
admiration. To pass through the pleasurable ex- 
citement of these dashing flights is alone worth a 
journey to any one of the rushing rivers where this 
experience can be had. The sensation of " running 
the rapids " is unlike anything otherwise attainable. 
It somewhat resembles that which one experiences 
from the return movement of a swing in full ac- 
tion ; but the f eeling is multiplied an hundred fold. 
As the rapid is approached, the water is generally 
as smooth as glass, and the light vessel seems drawn 
through it with lightning speed, as if moving upon 
the surface of transparent oil. From this it glides 
— and no other word so literally expresses the 
movement — into, and dashes through the foaming 
waters with the swiftness of a locomotive — the 
skilled boatmen guiding their craft past the ex- 
posed and hidden rocks by an easy and quiet motion 
of their paddles, as securely and as gracefully as 
the skilled " whip " guides his horses past any dan- 
gerous obstacle which presents itself in his pathway. 
This running the rapids is the very " poetry of 
motion," and those who have never enjoyed the 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 55 

sensation have something very pleasurable yet in 
reserve. 

The point selected for onr first camp was eight 
miles from New Richmond, and in the immediate 
neighborhood of several of the best pools on the 
river. There is no desirable fly-fishing, at any 
season of the year, below them. Tide-water, 
within which seine-fishing is allowed, extends 
nearly np to them, and as — for some reason with 
which I am not sufficiently familiar to discourse — 
salmon do not readily, if ever, rise to a fly until 
they enter fresh water, it is never deemed worth 
while to wet your line until these pools are reached. 

On arriving at our destination, we found Chief 
Justice Ritchie, of New Brunswick, and Chief 
Justice Gray, of Massachusetts, in camp, awaiting 
our arrival to move up higher in their pursuit of 
sport. They gave us a most cordial welcome — so 
cordial and so full of cheerful heartiness and good 
humor as to instantly dispel the reverential awe 
with which plain, unlearned laymen are wont to 
look upon such eminent expounders of law and 
dispensers of justice. They had doffed their er- 
mine and bade us welcome with unlaced dignity 
and grace, in flannel shirts and well-worn trousers. 
I have already referred to the buoyant spirits and 
charming hilarity of the Chief Justice of New 
Brunswick. He seemed an embodiment of good 



56 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

humor, as if he lived and moved and had his being 
in an atmosphere of perpetual sunshine. And Chief 
Justice Gray was like him in all the good qualities 
desirable in camp companionship. He is a man 
of grand physique — more than six feet high and 
well proportioned — and, at home, towers above 
the mass of his compeers in dignity and learning 
as he does above most men in comely stature. It 
was very pleasant to mark the simple enthusiasm 
with which these two eminent men gave us their 
piscatorial experiences and recounted their achieve- 
ments with rod and reel. It reminded one of the 
grand characters of the past — of the princes, and 
poets, and bishops, and chancellors, and the quiet, 
contemplative, happy scholars and philosophers of 
all times — who have found their highest delecta- 
tion in their pursuit of the delightful recreation of 
angling. It may not seem so to the plodding man 
of business, who deems all time wasted which does 
not bring golden grist to his mill ; but it is never- 
theless true that there have been multitudes of 
wise men, and good men, and happy men in all 
ages who, more than when honors or wealth came 
to them, have rejoiced when the times and seasons 
returned, when they could say to their friends, as 
Peter said to the disconsolate disciples, "I go 
a-fishing." Amid his deepest gloom and despon- 
dency, this great-hearted apostle fell back instinc- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 57 

lively upon his old vocation as the only source of 
comfort and relief. Multitudes of other heavy 
hearts and aching brains have found like relief 
from the same source of harmless diversion. 

These distinguished anglers had had grand suc- 
cess. It was Judge Gray's first visit, but having 
had long experience in the minor departments of 
the art, he found but little difficulty in acquiring 
the higher skill which the more complicated work 
of salmon-fishing requires. He had numerous 
trophies to exhibit in proof of the success which 
had attended his maiden efforts, and he referred to 
them with as much enthusiasm and, I doubt not, 
with far more satisfaction, than he had ever re- 
ferred to any of his most noted triumphs in the 
line of his profession. It is never in a spirit of 
mere boasting that a true angler alludes to his 
achievements, but because of the simple pleasure 
which, like the old soldier, he derives from " fight- 
ing his battles o'er again." To rehearse the inci- 
dents connected with the capture of some famous 
fish, is to re-experience the thrilling sensations 
which accompanied the feat itself. They remain, 
like the recollections of some pleasant spoken 
word, or of some beautiful picture, or of some 
grand scene in nature, a joyous memory forever. 
He is an unhappy man who has not some pleasant 
wells of memory to draw upon, if it be true, as 
8 



58 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

some thoughtful philosopher has said, that " half 
the joy of old age consists in the recollection of 
the pleasures of youth." 

A single incident in the experience of Chief 
Justice Ritchie is especially worth mentioning. 
JSTear the close of a day of fine sport he struck a 
thirty-pound salmon, which he tried in vain to 
kill before nightfall. It is a herculean task, re- 
quiring the highest skill and every possible favor- 
ing opportunity, to capture such a fish. The chan- 
ces are always against success at the best. But the 
venerable Chief found himself tied to this monster 
long after twilight had ceased to fall upon the face 
of the waters. The pool, always dark in its great 
depths, soon became black as a starless midnight. 
There were rocks on either side of him, rushing 
waters above him and boiling rapids below him. 
His line was invisible, and the only perceptible 
sign of life around him or before him, was the 
tugging and rushing of the maddened salmon fight- 
ing for his life amid the thick darkness which every 
where prevailed. Under any circumstances, the 
venerable angler would rather, a thousand times, 
subject himself to the merciless criticisms which 
a wrong judicial decision might provoke, than to 
lose a fish. But under the circumstances in which, 
at this time, he was surrounded, he would rather 
have taken that fish than to have been placed on 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 59 

the wool-sack of the United Kingdom. And yet 
how could it be done % It was useless for him to 
soliloquize, as he did, " Tou beggar, I'll fight you 
'till sunrise before you shall beat me." Long be- 
fore sunrise the fish might escape, the canoe be 
swamped in some merciless rapid, and the vener- 
able Chief left stranded and dripping upon some 
inhospitable rock, with nothing to cheer him in 
his wretched loneliness but the roar of the thunder- 
ing waters or the plaintive notes of the hooting 
night-owl. Fortunately, neither an all-night fight 
nor a possible shipwreck awaited him. His co- 
Chief Justice took in the situation as readily as he 
catches the point of a lawyer's brief, improvised a 
few flambeaux and started off to the rescue. It 
was a timely interposition, resulting in perfect suc- 
cess. The flambeaux made the surroundings of 
the combatants bright as day, and in due time the 
salmon gave up the fight, was duly gaffed and 
brought into camp, escorted by the first torch-light 
procession in which either Chief had ever before 
been the principal actor. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



CAPTURE OF MY FIRST SALMON. 

" An ' than," continued Jock, " whan a muckle chiel o' a 
salmon, wi'oot time tae consider whether yer flee is for his 
waime or only for his mooth — whether it's made by natur' or 
by Jock Hall — plays flap ! and by mistak' gangs to digest 
what he has gotten for his breakfast, but suspec's he canna 
swallow the line along wi' his mornin' meal till he takes some 
exercise ! — an' than tae see the line ticht, an' the rod bendin' 
like a heuck, an' to fin' something gaun fra the fish up the 
line and up the rod till it reaches yer verra heart, that gangs 
pit pat at yer throat like a tickin' watch ; until the bonnie 
creatur', after rinnin' up an' doon like mad, noo sulkin aside 
a stane to cure his teethache, then bilkin awa' wi' a scunner 
at the line, tryin' every dodge, an' syne gies in, comes to yer 
han' clean beat in fair play, and lies on the bank, sayin' 
' Waes me !' wi ; his tail, an' makin' his will wi' his gills an' 
mooth time aboot ! Eh ! mon ! it's splendid ! " — \Norman 
Macleod, D. Z>., in " The Starling^ 




Y impatience to make my first cast 
and take my first salmon was so 
great that the hours consumed in 
pitching tents, unpacking stores 
and arranging camp generally, 
seemed a sinful waste of precious 
moments. I did not wish, of 
course, to take advantage of the 
useful industry and greater pa- 
tience of my companions ; but I 
mentally voted them over nice in their anxiety to 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 61 

k4 make things comfortable " when, in my state of 
mind, the only thing which seemed requisite to the 
supremest comfort was the capture of a salmon. 
With that result achieved, I felt that I could be 
abundantly comfortable sitting upon a bare rock at 
high noon munching hard tack and bacon. I must 
in some way have manifested my restlessness, for 
the General, trying to hide his kindliness under a 
very thin veneering of brusqueness, said to me, 
" D., you are of no earthly use here. I wish you 
would get out of the way and go a-fishing." As 
this remark was made several hours before we had 
mutually agreed to begin work, I felt some little 
delicacy about taking advantage of the " ticket-of- 
leave " offered me. But as in the language of 
modern theology, I had an " inner consciousness " 
that I really was of "no use " as a tent-pitcher, and 
had no tact as " a man of all work" in camp prepara- 
tions, I soon found myself moving canoe- ward, with 
my salmon and trout rods strung and my nerves 
in a tremor in anticipation of " the good time 
coming " when I would no longer have to say " I 
never killed a salmon." I honestly meant to show 
my appreciation of the General's kindness by con- 
fining myself exclusively to trout waters. And my 
resolution was adequate to the emergency until I 
became weary of the slaughter I was making of 



62 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

one, two, three and four-pound trout, and until 
(after floating below the shallow water) I was 
" brought up all standing " by the remark of my 
Indian canoe-man : " Trout plenty no more. Sal- 
mon pool here. If he should rise, trout-rod no 
good." My first impulse was to go immediately 
back to camp, and I had given the order to that 
effect when a grunt of surprise from my swarthy 
friend — who could not comprehend how any one 
could enter a salmon pool and leave it unfished 
— induced me first to hesitate, then to countermand 
the order, and then to appease my conscience by 
the remark : " Well, I will make a few casts by 
way of practice." No sooner said than down went 
the anchor at the head of what I afterward learned 
was one of the best pools on the river. As I 
seized my great salmon rod — which seemed like a 
cedar beam after the eight-ounce switch with which 
I had been fishing — and began to gradually extend 
my cast, I felt as I suppose the raw recruit feels 
when he first hears the rattle of the enemy's mus- 
ketry, or as some very timid men feel when, for 
the first time, they stand up before a great multi- 
tude of free and independent electors to enter- 
tain and enlighten them with those profound 
ebullitions of wisdom and those brilliant bursts of 
eloquence which are commonly considered the 
all-sufficient and matter-of-course ingredients of a 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 63 

stump speech. I had reached a cast of perhaps 
fifty feet, in a direct line, and was watching my fly 
as intently as ever astronomer watched the unfold- 
ings of a newly discovered planet, when a monster 
head emerged from the water, and with distended 
jaws — disclosing his red gills so distinctly as to 
make his throat look, to my excited imagination, 
like a fiery furnace — made a dash (which seemed 
like the splurge of a sea-horse) for my fly. It was 
my duty, of course, to accept the challenge and 
" strike " at the right moment and so hook my fish 
and take the chances for the mastery. But I had 
no more power to " strike " than if every limb and 
nerve and muscle was paralyzed. My rod remained 
poised but motionless, and I stood gazing at the 
spot where the apparition appeared, in speechless 
amazement, while the fly — which had, for a single 
moment, been buried in that great open sepulchre 
— reappeared upon the surface quite unconscious 
of the terrible ordeal through which it had passed. 
I do not know that any one could have " knocked 
me down with a feather " at that particular mo- 
ment ; but I do know that I never before came so 
near " going off in a faint," or found a cup of cold 
water more refreshing. I had heard of those who 
had had the " buck fever," and I shall hereafter 
have more sympathy and greater respect for them, 
for I undoubtedly had the malady in its most ag- 



64 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

gravated form, and felt, as my astonished guide 
said I looked, " pale as a ghost." 

But this state of ridiculous semi-stupor lasted but 
for a moment. The slight twitch I felt as the fly 
slipped from the mouth of the fish operated like 
the sound of a trumpet. Every nerve tingled and 
the blood leaped through my veins as if every drop 
was an electric battery. In a very few moments, 
however, I was myself again. I had marked the 
spot where the fish had risen, had gathered up my 
line for another cast, had dropped the fly just where 
I desired it to rest, when, like a flash, the same 
enormous head appeared, the same open jaws re- 
vealed themselves, a swirl and a leap and a strike 
followed, and my first salmon was hooked with a 
thud, which told me as plainly as if the operation 
had transpired within the range of my vision, that 
if I lost him it would be my own fault. When 
thus assured, there was excitement but no flurry. 
My nerves thrilled and every muscle assumed the 
tension of well tempered steel, but I realized the 
full sublimity of the occasion, and a sort of majes- 
tic calmness took the place of the stupid inaction 
which followed the first apparition. My untested 
rod bent under the pressure in a graceful curve ; 
my reel clicked out a livelier melody than ever 
emanated from harp or hautboy as the astonished 
fish made his first dash ; the tensioned line emitted 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 65 

seolian music as it stretched and stiffened under the 
strain to which it was subjected; and for fifty 
minutes there was such giving and taking, such 
sulking and rushing, such leaping and tearing, such 
hoping and fearing, as would have " injected life 
into the ribs of death," made an anchorite dance in 
very ecstacy, and caused any true angler to believe 
that his heart was a kettle drum, every sinew a 
jews harp, and the whole framework of his excited 
nerves a full band of music. And during all this 
time my canoe rendered efficient service in keeping 
even pace with the eccentric movements of the 
struggling fish. " Hold him head up, if possible," 
was the counsel given me, and " make him work 
for every inch of line." "Whether, therefore, he 
took fifty yards or a foot, I tried to make him pull 
for it, and then to regain whatever was taken as 
soon as possible. The result was an incessant click- 
ing of the reel, either in paying out or in taking in, 
with an occasional flurry and leap which could have 
been no more prevented than the on-rushing of a 
locomotive. Any attempt to have suddenly checked 
him by making adequate resistance, would have 
made leader, line or rod a wreck in an instant. All 
that it was proper or safe to do was to give to each 
just the amount of strain and pressure it could 
bear with safety — not an ounce more nor an ounce 
less ; and I believe that I measured the pressure so 
9 



66 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

exactly that the strain upon my rod did not vary 
half an ounce from the first to the last of the 
struggle. 

Toward the close of the fight, when it was evident 
that the " jig was up " and I felt myself master of 
the situation, I took my stand upon a projecting 
point in the river, where the water was shallow and 
where the most favorable opportunity possible was 
afforded the gaffer to give the struggling fish the 
final death-thrust, and so end the battle. It was 
skillfully done. The first plunge of the gaff brought 
him to the green sward, and there lay out before 
me, in all his silver beauty and magnificent propor- 
tions, my first salmon. He weighed thirty pounds, 
plump, measured nearly four feet in length, was 
killed in fifty minutes and afforded me more plea- 
sure than any event since — well, say since Lee 
surrendered. As he was thus spread out before 
me, I could only stand over him in speechless 
admiration and delight — panting with fatigue, 
trembling in very ecstacy, and exclaiming with 
good old Sir Izaak : "As Dr. Boteler said of straw- 
berries, ' Doubtless God could have made a better 
berry, but doubtless God never did ; ' and so, if I 
may judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, 
innocent recreation than angling." 

This victory was a surfeit for the morning. With 
other fish in full view, ready to give me a repetition 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 67 

of the grand sport I had already experienced, I 
made no other cast and retired perfectly contented. 
The beautiful fish was laid down lovingly in the 
bottom of the canoe and borne in triumph to camp, 
where fish and fisher were given such hearty wel- 
come amid such hilarious enthusiasm as was be- 
fitting " the cause and the occasion." 

In the afternoon of the same day I killed a twen- 
ty-three pound salmon in the same pool in twenty 
minutes, having, I was sorry to learn on getting 
back to camp, monopolized the luck of the day, no 
other member of the party having had so much as 
a rise. But I was soon eclipsed, both in size and 
number — how, when, where, by whom, under 
what circumstances, and amid what intense excite- 
ment, I will try and describe anon. 



CHAPTEK X. 



A FEW NOTE-WOUTHY INCIDENTS. 

Eh, man ! What a conceit it is when ye reach a fine run, on 
awarm spring mornin', the wuds hotchin' wi' birds, an' dauds 
o' licht noos an' thans glintin' on the water ; an' the water 
itsel' in trim order, a wee doon, after a nicht's spate, an' wi' a 
drap o' porter in't, an' rowin' an' bubblin' ower the big stanes, 
curlin' into the linn an' oot o't. — \Norman Macleod, D. D. 




UP camp was unusually pictu- 
resque, — a well preserved lawn 
separated from the river by a 
fringe of alders, backed by a 
few cultivated fields attached to 
the cottage in our immediate 
neighborhood, and surrounded 
by lofty mountains, densely 
covered from base to summit 
with spruce, hemlock, maple and 
birch. Our three white tents constituted a pleas- 
ant contrast to the green sward upon which they 
were pitched, and our dining hall and cook-house 
were models of adaptability and neatness. The 
taste displayed in their disposition was due, first, 
to the military experience of Col. Pell, and 
secondly, to the austere habits of system, order 
and neatness for which the deservedly popular 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 69 

Collector of the Port of New York is distin- 
guished. A better arranged camp, combining 
more of good taste and comfort, never was 
erected upon any waters. My only objection to 
it was the fear that the recollection of it would 
hereafter render me dissatisfied with the strag- 
gling, disjointed, haphazard way in which I have 
always hitherto been content to camp out. A 
little sound judgment and good taste goes a great 
way toward making even a fishing camp comfort- 
able and attractive. I have often wondered how 
tidy wives could bear, with such angelic patience 
as some of them do, the careless ways of their 
slovenly husbands. If, as some insist, nothing 
more contributes to the happiness of a household 
than habitual neatness, there must be at least one 
very happy home in our great metropolis. 

On the morning of our second day on the river, 
all hands were ready for work. The several pools 
were properly divided ; each resorted to the one 
to which he was assigned, with high hopes and con- 
fident anticipations. And the result justified all 
that was hoped for. Gen. Arthur, as was proper, 
led in the score, although not in weight. Mr. Dun 
stood next ; but Col. Pell had caught the cham- 
pion fish. His first salmon weighed thirty-five 
pounds ! It was a grand achievement, and he bore 
his honors and good luck with becoming meekness, 



70 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

although he had killed his fish in twenty minutes. 
This despatch indicated extraordinary skill in a 
novice. No expert could have done better. In- 
deed, it is not once in a hundred times that a 
thirty-five-pound salmon is brought to gaff so 
promptly. I was content and happy with a single 
fish of twenty-four pounds as the result of my 
day's labor. 

Every new day brought new pleasures and an 
increase of fish ; but no one caught more than fiye 
in any one day, and sometimes some one's count 
was nil. But every day brought with it some 
special excitement or adventure, some new inci- 
dent or experience to break the monotony of the 
camp, and to maintain the reputation of the sport 
as more attractive, inspiring and exciting than any 
other. Among them were these : 

The General had been fishing with but passable 
success, when the monotony was broken by a leap 
which indicated greater weight and dimensions 
than anything with which he had yet been favored. 
With the promptness of an expert he struck at the 
right moment and with the exact force requisite 
to hook his fish strongly — a great art, which few 
salmon-anglers ever acquire perfectly. Then fol- 
lowed a struggle which justified his estimate of 
the weight of the fish. For more than an hour, 
every known appliance was used in vain to bring 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 71 

him to gaff. He sulked, plunged, leaped and 
rushed as impetuously at the end of the hour as 
during the first five minutes after he was hooked. 
He made no sign of surrender or weariness, and 
was in one of his worst tantrums when the reel 
clogged. Any one with less experience and per- 
sistency than the General would have " thrown up 
the sponge " at such a mishap ; but he was equal 
to the emergency. The canoe was forced rapidly 
forward to the beach, which was fortunately unob- 
structed; the General leaped upon terra firma 
with the agility of an acrobat, and after an active 
backward and forward movement of half an horn', 
manipulating his line with his hand, he bagged his 
game, saved his tackling, and brought to camp a 
thirty-four-pound salmon. Not one angler in a 
thousand would have achieved such a victory, and 
he deserved the congratulations he received when 
the magnificent fish was formally spread out for 
inspection. 

And to this incident there is a moral. The reel 
which thus clogged at the most critical moment, 
was made with special reference to extra heavy 
work, was warranted as superior to any reel which 
had ever found its way upon salmon waters, and 
cost a fabulous sum of money. But it was a delu- 
sion and a cheat — as worthless as tow string for a 
salmon line and the cause of harsher words with 






72 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

more syllables than any reel that ever passed under 
my disgusted inspection. A reel that " ticks like 
a chronometer and moves like clock-work" is all 
very well in a show-case ; bnt a reel with rough 
and ready action and straight-forward movements, 
like a man with " no nonsense about him," is the 
reel for service. It was the last bit of work that 
fancy reel was called upon to do during our three 
weeks on the Cascapedia. 

Another incident, equally exciting, but resulting 
less fortunately, happened to the General upon 
another occasion. He had solidly hooked a very 
large fish in a pool where large fish pre-eminently 
abound. He sulked persistently. For nearly an 
hour he remained as immovable as a rock. No 
strain which it was safe to impose upon the rod 
could move him. He simply wouldn't stir. Noth- 
ing is more provoking, and nothing more tries the 
patience of the most patient angler. The fatigue 
is even greater than when hooked to a fish that 
deems "action, action, action," quite as essential 
to liberty as the rhetorician declares the same 
qualities indispensable to effective oratory. The 
tension must be equally preserved, without a 
moment's relaxation, whatever moods the fish may 
assume or whatever freaks may move him. To 
be obliged to stand an hour thus pulling upon an 
immovable object, until every muscle in one's 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 73 

arms seems ready to come out in shreds, is about 
as wearisome a position as any angler can be 
placed in ; and it would not be strange if, during 
some moments of this long tussle, he is inclined to 
the opinion that, after all, it may be true, as the 
cynic hath said, that angling is an exercise which 
requires a rod and line with a worm at one end 
and a fool at the other. But even such a struggle 
has its compensations, and every true angler would 
gladly bear even tenfold the fatigue involved in 
such labor rather than surrender one iota of the 
intensely pleasurable excitement he derives from 
it. But as there is an end to all things, so there is 
an end to a salmon's sulks. When well nigh 
weary to exhaustion, and when almost ready to 
make the effort to force him from his hole if every 
inch of rod and tackle should be smashed in the 
effort, the patient angler found the fish rushing 
as determinedly as he before had sulked. More 
than two hundred feet of line went out of the reel 
in a flash ; and it became now even harder to stop 
than it was before to start him. Rush followed 
rush in such quick succession that scarcely a yard 
of line remained in reserve. The only hope was 
in the equally rapid movement of the canoe. The 
boatmen were as eager and excited as the fisher- 
man, and whatever muscle could accomplish was 
done. It was a race for life on one hand and for 
10 



74 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

conquest on the other. In a moment the pool 
was left far back in the distance. Now one rapid 
and now another was passed. Shallows were 
avoided and rocks were shunned with a skill which 
was as marvelous as the wonderful strength and 
vitality of the fish. A full mile had been thus 
gone over with lightning-like velocity. The Gen- 
eral had not for a moment lost either his head or 
his feet. The line was held with an even hand, 
and the signs indicated a speedy triumph of 
mind over matter, and skill over brute force, when 
(may stale fish be his diet for a fortnight ! ) one of 
the men, by a wrong movement of his paddle, sent 
the canoe directly beneath an overhanging tree 
which compelled the General to lower the tip of 
his rod, of which the fish took instant advantage, 
snapped the leader and was off, leaving behind him 
a cascade of foam and followed by " a blue streak." 
Such an issue of a hard fight is a terrible test of 
one's patience, and when his leaderless line came 
back upon him, limp and empty as a stale joke, if 
the General had simply said, " Boys, go to camp," 
he would have proved himself more than mortal. 
If he uttered any other sentence, the angel's tear 
which fell upon the hastily spoken word of Uncle 
Toby, no doubt blotted out all that was super- 
fluous and unseemly. 

Other incidents of a like character were con- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 75 

stantly occurring. Indeed, the successful capture 
of a fish that rises to your fly is as frequently the 
exception as the rule. And this is not to be 
wondered at when it is remembered that the hook 
used is not larger than the smallest pin when 
curved. "When the fish rises to this diminutive 
object, and the angler " strikes,'' the chances are at 
least two to one that it will slip out of the huge 
jaws of the eager fish. And even when the hook 
catches some part of the exposed surface, it is quite 
as likely to catch where the fibre is tender as where 
it is tough. But if hooked just right, there is still 
the contingency of imperfect tackling, a misshapen 
hook, a brittle loop, a frayed leader, or a deceptive 
line ; and superadded to all these, are the hidden 
rocks against which line or leader is often chafed 
up to the point of separation. With these and 
many other chances against the angler, the wonder 
is not that he often loses a fish, but that he succeeds 
in killing so many. And yet it is this uncertainty 
— these always possible and frequently occurring 
contingencies — which give to the science its great- 
est charm, and make success something of which 
to be proud. 



CHAPTEK XI. 

SALMON HABITS AND A LOST BATTLE. 
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. — \Old adage. 



OTWITHSTAKDING our suc- 
cess, we are every day made con- 
scious that we are too late for 
the best fishing. Some of the 
pools from which half a score 
of salmon could be taken in a 
day previous to the middle of 
July, are now barren of fish ; 
and in many others, a day may 
be consumed in achieving what could then be 
accomplished in an hour. Salmon begin to run 
into fresh water early in June, or so soon as the 
Spring freshets are over; and then they show 
their greatest life and voracity. From that time 
on to the middle of July, they are most active 
and rise most readily to any object which attracts 
their attention. After that — when they have 
been a month or more in fresh water — they 
become somewhat sluggish and less disposed to 
rise. Besides, the water becomes so shallow and 
transparent that the very shadow of the line is 




PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 77 

distinctly visible ; and no fish is more shy or more 
easily frightened. To take a salmon under these 
circumstances requires the exercise of the greatest 
patience, and to take them in any great numbers 
is proof of the very highest skill. I would never 
advise any one who has to make a long journey to 
reach salmon waters to go later than the first of 
July, except on compulsion. Better fish in August 
than not fish at all, but you will be sure of a larger 
catch in one week toward the close of June than 
during a whole month after the fifteenth of July. 

It is, however, no proof that there are no salmon 
in a pool because they do not rise. I have more 
than once cast all day in a pool alive with leaping 
salmon — above, below and all around me — with- 
out being able to lure one to my hook. This is 
one of the peculiarities of the fish I cannot fathom. 
My own experience is the experience of every one 
who has ever spent even a week upon a salmon 
river. 

It is generally believed that salmon eat nothing 
after they enter fresh water ; and their apparently 
empty stomachs when dissected are cited in proof 
of the theory. But if they eat nothing, and have 
no desire to do so, why do they rise to a living or 
artificial object ? Why do they often even gorge 
the fly and rise to a minnow, or take a minnow or 
a fly when trolled under the surface, or when 



78 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

dropped as bait is ordinarily dropped in still fish- 
ing ? The general absence of food from the stom- 
ach is seemingly conclusive of the total abstinence 
theory ; but better believe anything marvelous or 
improbable than that a salmon lives through six 
months or any number of months of the year in a 
state of constant activity, and during the exhaustive 
process of generation, without imbibing any par- 
ticle of food. It it just as improbable that it does 
so as it would be unnatural. 

But I have neither the wish nor the knowledge 
requisite to enter upon an intelligent discussion 
of any of the habits or peculiarities of this fish. 
This is neither the purpose nor the intent of these 
rambling letters. 

In my last I referred to some of the more note- 
worthy incidents which occurred to Gen. Arthur. 
Others had almost equally exciting experiences. 
None of our party had greater skill, or were made 
happy by greater success, than Mr. Dun. He kept 
even pace with the General, and often distanced 
myself. Of course I attributed this to his longer 
practice; it could have been nothing else! But 
while he had his successes he also had his mis- 
haps. The most notable was this : He had hooked 
a very large fish at the camp-pool, which began the 
fight magnificently. I never saw a fish leap more 
spitefully or make more determined efforts to 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 79 

escape. But lie was managed so splendidly that 
at the end of an hour and a half all the lookers-on 
voted him sure to be bagged. Directly below the 
pool where he was struck, and to which he had 
been restricted, was a heavy rapids which the 
canoe-men were anxious, if possible, to avoid. 
They advised, therefore, rather than to allow the 
fish to shoot these rapids, that he should be, as 
gently as possible, coaxed over to a cove of deep 
water lying behind some large rocks above the 
rapids and near the middle of the pool. This 
advice was taken, and in effecting the change of 
base the fish gave a series of leaps which revealed 
the full dimensions of the largest salmon, by many 
pounds, I ever saw. When asked for an estimate 
of his weight, the Indian gaffer simply held up his 
paddle to indicate that that, in his opinion, was 
about his measure. The desired cove was securely 
reached. The fish changed his tactics from leaping 
to sulking, as they most generally do in deep, still 
water, and at the end of two full hours was seem- 
ingly as far from being a dead fish as at any mo- 
ment during the struggle. Thinking he would be 
able to manage him better and hold him more 
comfortably on the rock than in the canoe, Mr. 
Dun made the transfer, sitting down as coolly and 
unflurried as if he were casting up the interest on 
a long note instead of fighting a hard battle with 



80 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

a forty-five-pound salmon. I took my seat beside 
him, intensely interested in the contest, and en- 
deavored to rest his weary mnscles by congratu- 
lating him upon the grand sport he was having, 
and expressing my admiration of the splendid way 
in which he was handling his fish. But he shook 
his head doubtfully, and expressed his fears of the 
issue. "I don't like," he said, "the occasional 
feel of my line. It seems to me that the fellow is 
rubbing his nose against a rock, trying to chafe off 
my leader. There it goes again ! I must get out 
of this or I shall lose him, sure." The fight had 
been going on now for two hours and fifteen min- 
utes by the watch, and Mr. D. had just made his 
first step toward the canoe, when up came the 
broken leader, the sad memento of a lost battle ! 
Just what he feared had happened, and what was 
undoubtedly the largest fish that had been hooked 
this season, "turned tail" upon his discomfited 
captor. And there was silence for the space of a 
minute. Fisher, gaffer and lookers-on were equally 
speechless. If any one was tempted to blaspheme, 
he evidently felt that " he had nothing in his vo- 
cabulary at all adequate to the occasion," and said 
nothing. I had always admired the complacent 
serenity with which my poor friend had borne the 
crosses of life, but on this occasion his serenity 
touched the verge of the sublime. Happy man 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 81 

who can thus lose a (say) fifty-pound salmon with- 
out intermitting a single puff of his cigar ! Many 
a saint has been canonized who never exhibited the 
angelic virtues of uncomplaining submission and 
gentle patience in such sublime measure. 

Another mishap occurred in this wise : "When 
I was fighting what afterward proved to be a 
thirty-four pound fish (my largest), and just at a 
most critical moment, I found that my fine had 
become crossed and " doubled under " on my reel. 
I could take in at pleasure, but I could not let out 
an inch. It was an awkward fix ; but as good luck 
would have it, by risking an extra strain upon my 
rod I soon regained more line than was afterward 
called for, and saved my fish. The dilemma was 
the result of careless reeling. One cannot be too 
particular in seeing that his line is reeled up close- 
ly and without a lap. I lost a salmon before I 
thoroughly learned this useful lesson. 

These mishaps, however, were but exceptions to 
the rule of good luck, although it is undoubtedly 
the experience of most salmon anglers that they 
miss a great many more fish that rise than they 
hook, and lose a great many more that are hooked 
than they kill. At least that was our experience. 
Enough, however, were killed, and of sufficient 
weight, to satisfy the ambition of the most ambi- 
tious in our party. On the General's large score 
11 



82 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

was marked one fish of forty odd pounds, and sev- 
eral others approximating that weight. Mr. Dun's 
score fully equaled that of the General, and em- 
braced one or more of the same weight, with sev- 
eral ranging from thirty pounds upward. Col. 
Pell, with a somewhat smaller score, approached 
the most successful of the party in weight. My 
first three fish weighed eighty-eight pounds (30, 24 
and 34) and my three largest ninety-three pounds 
(34, 30 and 29) ; but my heaviest fish weighed only 
thirty-four pounds — several pounds less than the 
largest which honored the scores of Gen. Arthur 
and Mr. Dun, and less than the largest taken by 
Col. Pell. In June and early July better scores 
were made, and a few larger fish were taken — as 
high as forty-eight pounds — but I am sure no other 
party was ever better pleased with their achieve- 
ments or more thoroughly enjoyed the sport. 

Our trip to the Forks of the river, nearly fifty 
miles up stream, with a description of the grand 
scenery which met us at every step, the beautiful 
camp we erected and adorned, the grand rapids we 
ascended, the splendid fishing we had, our return 
flight through the rapids, with the thousand and 
one pleasant incidents that made every day too 
short and the breaking up of camp the only un- 
happy moment — all these will form the theme of 
future chapters. I will only now say, in closing 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 83 

this record of my first year's visit to the Cascapedia, 
that our trip up the river was marked by two un- 
usual occurrences — the sight of a huge Black Bear, 
which abound in this region, and of a large Moose, 
which are here as thick as deer in the Adirondacks. 
The former was "loafing 'round" on a pebbly 
beach, and the latter was crossing the river, soon 
after sunrise, in the immediate neighborhood of 
our camp. All hands were routed out to see him, 
and the shootist of our party had the good fortune 
to — miss him, although within easy rifle range. 
But who could hit his first Moose before fairly 
awake? The monster was as large as a Jersey 
cow, with great spreading antlers, but he moved as 
sprightly as a grey-hound when he discovered his 
proximity to our camp. 

It is a pleasure also to say that we remember 
gratefully the courtesies of Mr. Moffat, of Dal- 
housie, and the unceasing attentions of Mr. Mont- 
gomery, Collector of the Port, who made our day's 
stay in the town one of unalloyed pleasure. Both 
gentlemen placed our party under lasting obliga- 
tions, and their kindness and hospitality will always 
be associated with the pleasant memories we shall 
ever cherish of our first visit to these salmon waters. 



Second Visit to the Cascapedia. 



CHAPTEE XII. 



SOME REMINISCENCES OF OLD FEIENDS. 

Did ever any one see the like ! What a heap of trumpery 
is here ; and since I find you an honest man, I will make no 
scruples in laying my treasures before you. — [Charles Cotton. 




"N taking down my store of ang- 
ling implements from their win- 
ter's repose, I found them as I 
had left them, after a long siege 
of service. They were as wel- 
come as the faces of old friends ; 
and the older the more welcome. 
There was the identical " sil- 
ver doctor" with which I took 
my first salmon last year — dim 
and frayed from hard service, but more precious 
from association than all its score of gaudy com- 
panions. What any fly would do, under any cir- 
cumstances, for any one, that fly did for me. 
Whether in sunshine or cloud — whether in un- 
tried waters or where each ripple, rock and eddy 
were as familiar as household words — whether, 
when no breeze disturbed the silvery surface of 



88 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

the river or when the storm howled all around me 
— always and in all places it was true to its office. 
We sometimes have such friends, and because 
some such have been brought to mind by this tiny 
memento of forest life, I will place it on the re- 
tired list, lest it should disappoint me should I 
again test it, and so the pleasant memories I have 
of it be dimmed by the recollection of a single 
failure. Even friendship may get weary, and he 
is wise who never overtasks it. 

Here is another memento — a Limerick hook, 
which proved a faithful friend in all waters for 
many years. I took my first trout with it in 1853, 
from a mill-pond not far from Coburg in Canada. 
The water was as transparent as the atmosphere. 
I had whipped every inch of it in vain. Not a 
fish would rise to any fly I could muster. In des- 
pair I had resort to bait, and dropping my line 
into deep water within a few feet of a sunken 
brush-heap, I was startled on seeing coming out 
from beneath it, with a sedate and complacent 
gravity, a massive and graceful trout, evidently 
quite intent upon the tempting lure which I had 
placed before him. But he moved very slowly, as 
if confident that what his eye was fixed upon could 
not escape him; and as if, like an experienced 
epicure, he was determined to enjoy in anticipa- 
tion the feast which he was sure of, he smacked 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 89 

his lips, as trout often do, and dashed at last for 
the bait. I struck him on the instant, but too 
soon. I knew he was badly hooked, and felt that 
to save him would require most careful handling. 
The bank upon which I stood was three or four 
feet above the water, and the water two yards 
from the bank was twenty feet in depth. After 
a struggle of ten minutes, I saw that with the del- 
icate hold I had of him it would be impossible 
either to kill or lift him, and having neither land- 
ing net nor gaff, James Wild — who as a looker- 
on was even more excited than myself — begged 
of me to lead the fish close to the bank, when he 
could, he thought, by taking the line near the 
hook, slide him out of the water in safety. I was 
afraid of the experiment and suggested my hat as 
a substitute for a landing net ; but he, as he always 
is, was sanguine of success and I submitted. 
Never was fish led more delicately, and he fol- 
lowed my lead as kindly as a pet lamb, until I held 
him within three feet of Wild's stand-point. Seiz- 
ing the line, and poising himself with artistic pre- 
cision, he slid the beautiful creature out of the 
water nearly to the top of the bank, when the 
hook was disengaged, and, with a single shake of 
his tail, as if in defiance, he plunged back into his 
native element, and I after him ! Seeing that the 
momentum which W. gave him was not sufficient 
12 



90 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

to save him, I instinctively threw inyself forward 
to scoop him up, but failed, and found myself 
the next instant coming up myself through the 
pure water into which I had plunged in my fruit- 
less efforts to save the fish ! Wild never moved a 
muscle, but pointing to a spot a few rods distant, 
quietly suggested to me to " swim yonder ; it's a 
good place to get out at ! " He has never offered 
to land a fish for me from that day to this. 

I have other pleasant recollections of this Lime- 
rick. Trees have been climbed, brooks have been 
forded, and stout garments have been cut, to pre- 
serve it ; and here it is to-day, good as new and 
ready for instant service. I shall preserve it as an 
heir-loom, and it shall go down to posterity with 
my " silver doctor " certified, under my hand and 
seal, as a friend who never failed me. 

And here is a Reel, with every movement oat of 
gear and quite as unfit for service as a broken rod. 
And yet I would as soon think of burning the let- 
ters of an old friend as to throw it away ; for I 
never look at it without having come up before 
me a thousand pleasant reminiscences of angling 
waters in the Canadas, in Wisconsin, Yermont, New 
Hampshire, Maine, and the lakes and rivers which 
make an angler's paradise of our own northern 
forests. It rendered its first service in the waters 
of the Chateaugay lakes — once famous as the best 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING-. 91 

trout waters on our northern border. This was so 
long since that it is like sprinkling snow-flakes upon 
my frosted locks to think of it. My companions 
were James Cook, Alfred Clark and Duncan Pell. 
They have all crossed the dark river ; but the recol- 
lection of their virtues and good fellowship remains 
as a pleasant memory. During that excursion I 
remember that Gen. Cook wagered Mr. Pell that 
a three-pound-and-a-quarter brook trout I had taken 
in the inlet could not be beaten. As Mr. Pell had 
just captured one which weighed five pounds and 
a quarter, of course the General lost the wager. 
Both fish, within twenty-four hours, were served 
up as the crowning dish of a sumptuous dinner 
given to a select party of friends by Hamilton Fish, 
then the chief executive of the State as he is now 
the honored head of the Washington cabinet. It 
is rare indeed that two such brook trout are ever 
taken from any of the rivers in our own State. 
They are common in the Rangely waters, but no- 
where else within our own territory this side the 
Rocky Mountains. 

And this "leader" has its history. I bought it 
in Montreal, years ago, when I found myself too 
late for a pleasure trip to the Saguenay for salmon. 
Falling in with an expert, he proposed that we 
should try the streams intersecting the railroad be- 
tween Montreal and Portland. The suggestion was 



92 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

an agreeable one, and we were soon pushing our 
way from Island Fond to a famons brook and lake 
some live miles distant. The day was intensely 
hot, and we despaired of success unless we should 
have the luck to strike a " spring-hole." This, after 
hours of seeking, we failed to find in the brook ; 
and the lake (whose shores were composed of mud 
and quick-sand) gave no better promise. But as 
the sun-glare began to pass from the face of the 
water, trout were observed to " break " in a narrow 
circle a few rods distant. There was the " spring- 
hole " we were seeking. But how to reach it ! A 
log-raft was speedily extemporised, and we had our 
reward. My " leader" was strung with five flies, 
and in six casts I killed eighteen trout, weighing 
nineteen pounds and a half. At one throw I took 
three which aggregated five pounds and a half. I 
preserve it as a memento of a happy day. 

With this " brown hackle," without intermission, 
I killed one hundred and nine small trout in four 
hours in a pond near Racquette Falls. I handle it 
as gently as a relic, not alone because it is the me- 
mento of an unusual achievement, but because the 
sight of it brings up vividly before me the beauti- 
ful lake where the trout lay ; its crystal waters ; 
the glinting of its ruffled surface as the bright sun 
fell upon it ; the densely-wooded hills which encir- 
cled it ; the soughing of the tall pines as the sum- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 93 

mer's breeze swept through their branches; the 
deer which, unconscious and unharmed, alternately 
disported himself upon the sand-beach and fed upon 
the water lilies whose snowy crests kept time to 
the music of the gentle waves which rolled up, like 
long belts of silver, upon the golden sands ; and the 
thrill which coursed through every nerve as trout 
after trout leaped to the cast, and, after such mani- 
pulation and "play" as only those who have had 
personal experience can comprehend, were duly 
captured. 

And here are discarded lines, unused gimp, broken 
snells, severed tips, sinkers, floats, trolling gangs, 
minnow lines, wires, pincers, feathers from duck, 
peacock and pigeon, wax, thread, loose hooks, 
spoons and whatever else goes to make up an an- 
cient angler's " kit." They have each filled up the 
measure of their office, and deserve the repose 
which they have earned from long use and faithful 
service. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 



BRIEF TRIBUTE TO A DEPARTED FRIEND. 

To die is landing on some silent shore, 
Where billows never break, nor tempests roar ; 
Ere well we feel the friendly stroke, t'is o'er. 

— {Garth, 



Nor kings nor nations 
One moment can retard th' appointed hour. 



[Dryden. 



The world's an inn, and death's the journey's end. 



[Ibid 



Since then our Arcite is with honor dead, 

Why should we mourn that he so soon is freed ? 

=— [Ibid. 



HE pleasurable emotions usually ex- 
cited by needed work preparatory 
to our annual exclusion, were 
chastened upon this occasion by 
the recollection that one of the 
four who made, up our party last 
year— the youngest, the most 
buoyant and the best beloved — 
will never again join us in our 
pleasant angling expeditions. Soon 
after his return home last summer, without pre- 
monition, " in the twinkling of an eye," he was 
called to pass the dark river. His sudden death, 




PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 95 

from an organic malady which no care could 
avert, made a happy home desolate, and cast a 
shadow over many loving hearts. No one of us 
anticipated a return to the Cascapedia more confi- 
dently or with greater delight. But it was not to 
be. We shall miss him > for he was the life and 
inspiration of the camp, as he was the ever-wel- 
come guest of every social circle. There only 
remains to us the recollection of his pleasant ways 
and joyous companionship. 

After his return home, and a few days before 
his death, he gave expression to the memories he 
cherished of the Cascapedia in the following beau- 
tiful lines : 

THE CHALEUR BAY — 1874. 

AFTER FATHER PROTJT'S SHANDON BELLS. 

With deep affection, 

And recollection, 
I often think of the Chaleur Bay; 

Whose river wild, would, 

Tn age or childhood, 
Cast round men's fancies, its magic sway. 

There memory drifting — 

The past uplifting, 
Brings well-remembered scenes of summer time ; 

The sportsman's pleasure, 

Or grateful leisure, 
On Cascapedia's pine-clad banks sublime. 

I've seen the river, 

That thundering ever, 
Roars at Niagara its mighty tone , 

But the bosom smiling, 

All care beguiling, 
Fair Cascapedia! 'tis all thy own. 



96 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



The Hudson splendid, 

With floods descended 
From tow'ring summits, rising range on range. 

With stately motion 

Moves toward the ocean, 
But equals not thy ever beauteous change. 

When old and hoary, 

From life's dull story 
We turn and gaze along our backward way. 

Dim eyes will lighten, 

And old hearts will brighten, 
To see our river on the Chaleur Bay. 

— ID. Archie Pell. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

SECOND VISIT TO THE CASCAPEDIA WHO MADE UP 

THE PARTY. 

Let us to the ancient woods : I say, let us value the woods. 
They are full of solicitations. — [Thoreati. 



1 leave the town with its hundred noises, 
Its clatter and whir of wheel and steam, 

For woodland quiet and silvery voices, 
With a forest camp by a crystal stream. 

—[G. W. Nears. 



HERE are scores of salmon rivers 
between Quebec and Labrador, 
but they are not all equally at- 
tractive. In some there are but 
few fish ; in others the fish are 
uniformly small ; in others still 
there are ten grisle to one sal- 
mon ; in still others the pools are 
separated by great distances, and 
many of them are subject to 
such sudden floods and such frequent discolo- 
ration of their waters as to render fishing pre- 
carious and unsatisfactory, except at such remote 
and uncertain intervals as to weary the most 
patient angler. There are, however, a multitude 
of rivers in which the fish are large and abundant, 
13 




98 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

where the pools are numerous and accessible, where 
grisle are seldom encountered, and where the 
scenery is as magnificent as the fishing is superb. 
A few of these rivers are within easy reach of 
steamboat, railroad and telegraph communication. 
Others (and many of the best of them) are so far 
from these conveniences that business men, who 
do not care to put themselves wholly beyond the 
reach of their correspondents, seldom visit them. 

Several of both these classes of rivers were 
available to our party the present season, and it 
was not until late in May that it was finally deter- 
mined to revisit the Cascapedia — the scene of our 
last year's exploits, and, taking it all in all, one of 
the very best rivers on the continent. While it is 
as true of angling as of every thing else, that 
" variety 's the very spice of life," we were all glad 
when this conclusion was reached ; for we had such 
pleasant recollections of this river — of its grand 
pools, its monster salmon and its magnificent 
scenery — that the thought of change was never 
agreeable. 

We proceeded to our destination over the same 
route as last year — via Boston, Portland, Ban- 
gor, St. John and Shediac by rail, and thence some 
three hundred miles by steamboat. The route is 
a very pleasant one, but neither shorter nor pleas- 
anter than by way of Quebec, from whence a fine 






PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 99 

steamer leaves once a week, for Gaspe, Dalhousie, 
Pictou, etc. The sail by this latter route through 
the Gulf and Bays which intervene, is one of the 
most delightful imaginable if the weather is pleas- 
ant and no fogs show themselves. Those who 
want to know all about it are referred to Har- 
per's recently published " Guide to the Maritime 
Provinces." 

Dalhousie, where we left the steamer, is " beau- 
tiful for situation," but only interesting to anglers 
as being the centre of several of the best salmon 
rivers on the continent. The Restigouche empties 
into the bay of Chaleur in its immediate neighbor- 
hood, and the Cascapedia lies on the opposite shore 
only a few miles distant. The former is by far 
the larger river, and has abundant room for a score 
of rods ; but while the Cascapedia is of less vol- 
ume, it is generally preferred, not only because 
the fish are uniformly larger, but because the pools 
are more distinctly marked and the scenery more 
attractive. 

And this latter consideration never fails to enter 
into the calculations of the true angler ; for it is 
a great mistake to assume that his fondness for 
the art has no other or higher inspiration than the 
anticipated excitement of catching fish. Many 
excellent trout streams wend their way, for long 
distances, through flat lands and tangled morasses. 



100 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

I have been beguiled to such sluggish streams by 
glowing representations of large fish and plenty of 
them. But I could never be tempted to repeat my 
visit. Half the pleasure, and more, of camp-life 
depends upon where you pitch your tent. Who- 
ever has imbibed the gentle and poetic spirit of 
the old masters must have pleasant surroundings 
or he soon wearies of the sport. To enjoy the 
pastime in full measure there must be rapid and 
cascade, rock and mountain, forest and flower, song- 
bird and murmuring waters. The rise and strike 
and play of a mammoth trout or salmon is to the 
angler what the stir and bustle and push of com- 
merce is to the man of business. They give buoy- 
ancy to the spirits, elasticity to the step, activity 
to the brain and a quicker flow to the life-currents 
of the whole system. But this season of busy 
activity finds delightful relief in the quiet repose 
of a pleasant home. The tug and swirl and lusty 
play of a twenty-pound salmon thrills the nerves 
like an electric current, makes every muscle tingle 
with ecstacy, and sends the blood coursing through 
the body as if each particular vein was the high- 
way of an aurora borealis. But even in the midst 
of the fierce struggle, his eye takes in the scenic 
beauties with which he is encompassed. He sees 
the deep pool encircled by the white foam of the 
swift moving waters ; the ponderous bowlders 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 101 

which rise like water-giants all around him ; the 
foaming rapid whose approach is smooth as glass 
and which reflects back the sun's rajs like a pol- 
ished mirror; the luxuriant foliage which fringes 
the stream and which is re-produced in even richer 
hues by the transparent water into which it casts 
its refreshing shadows ; and the cloud-capped hills 
which are around him " as the mountains are round 
about Jerusalem." 

Of course, the supreme business of the hour 
when hooked to a fish is to land him, but even this 
highest source of the angler's pleasure would soon 
lose its charm, if, during the progress of the strug- 
gle, the eye was not occasionally relieved by these 
visions of beauty. No, it is not all of fishing to 
fish. If it were, the angler would not be able to 
claim fellowship with the long line of poets, philo- 
sophers, divines and statesmen whose names, from 
the time of St. Peter to the present hour, have 
adorned its annals. 

Our party consisted of Gen. Arthur, P. G. 
Dun, Judge Fullerton and myself — the Judge 
taking the place of our lamented friend Pell, who 
was called to his rest soon after his return home 
last August. While we greatly missed him, no 
more agreeable companion than Judge Fullerton 
ever cast a fly or enlivened a camp-fire. He had 
just escaped from the Brooklyn court-room, where 



102 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

for months he had attracted the attention of the 
whole country by his masterly examination and 
cross-examination of witnesses in the famous 
Beecher trial. The excessive mental labor was most 
exhausting, and no man anywhere more needed or 
more deserved the relaxation which nothing so well 
as angling affords. He had, withal, on the very 
eve of his departure, met with an accident which 
compelled the use of a crutch, and which, for a 
time, threatened to deprive him of the pleasure of 
the trip and his friends the pleasure of his compan- 
ionship. But, fortunately, he was able to start, 
whereat he rejoiced more than when all men praised 
him for his marvellous professional skill and genius. 
Gen. Arthur was also an invalid. In spite of 
his magnificent physique, sustained by a constitu- 
tion perfected by the accumulated vigor of many 
generations, he had reached the verge of complete 
exhaustion by overwork and anxiety in the dis- 
charge of his onerous and complicated official duties. 
His great debility resulted in what very soon proved 
to be a most malignant carbuncle, causing him 
great suffering and his friends extreme uneasiness. 
But while his physicians doubted the propriety of 
his entering upon his purposed journey, he pre- 
ferred rather to take the risk than to forego the 
anticipated pleasure. So, with face poulticed and 
bandaged as if he had been participating in the 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 103 

rough amusements proverbially inseparable from a 
" Donny brook Fair," he took his departure full of 
hope that his ailment would be but temporary, and 
that he would find on the " fair Cascapedia " that 
health and vigor of which he had been despoiled in 
the great metropolis. When, with a few friends, 
he joined Judge Fullerton with his crutch, at the 
pre-arranged rendezvous, they were both subjected 
to a deal of chaffing, as fitter subjects for a hospital 
than for a camp-fire, and better representatives of 
the invalid corps than of the jolly guild of anglers. 
The Judge, though quite unfitted to lead in a Ger- 
man, had the free use of his tongue and paid the 
gibers back in their own coin ; but the General was 
muzzled. He could only look his pity that gentle- 
men so sensible in all else so little appreciated the 
pleasure which awaited him, as to assume that any- 
thing short of a positive providential prohibition 
could prevent any one who had ever experienced 
the supreme delectation of angling, from carrying 
out his purpose to " go a-fishing." But the exhibi- 
tion was comical, nevertheless, and the humor of 
it was quite as fully enjoyed by the invalids as by 
their friends. 

As the sequel proved, it would have been well 
had the General taken the advice of his physician ; 
for his illness mastered him before he reached his 
destination. Two weeks of intense suffering was 



104 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

the result. But his purpose remained unchanged ; 
and so soon as he could be safely lifted from his 
conch he started off to meet us — weak but hope- 
ful — assured that nothing would so soon set him 
up as the " strike " of a salmon and the joyous 
abandon of camp-life. And he was right. He 
had been taking his twenty grains of quinine every 
day for a fortnight. His first salmon made his 
torpid blood leap with all the vitality of lusty 
health. He very soon discarded his medicine, as 
he found every pound of salmon the full equivalent 
of a grain of quinine. In forty-eight hours he was 
my chief competitor at table, a fact which ena- 
bled the Judge to render the formal decision that 
he was a well man with a ravenous appetite. For 
a week the Judge limped his way to his canoe by 
aid of his crutch ; but after that he was our cham- 
pion pedestrian. There is something magical in 
the atmosphere of this far-north region, when to its 
health-giving properties is superadded the excite- 
ment afforded by the pleasant pastime of angling. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

IN CAMP THE INDIAN GAFFER THE ADVANTAGES 

OF PRESERVED WATERS. 

Here, or in some such devoted solitude, should dwell the 
Muse and compose a treatise on the worship of the Dryads. — 
[ Thoreau. 



Blessed silent groves! O may you be 
Forever mirth's best nursery! 

May pure contents 

Forever pitch their tents 
Upon these downs, these meeds, these rocks, these mountains, 
And peace still slumber by the purling fountains, 

Which we may every year 

Meet, when we come a-fishing here. 

— [Sir Henry Wo tton . 




I UB, first camping ground was twelve 
miles from the mouth of the river 
and combined all the elements of 
picturesqueness and grandeur — a 
verdant plain encircled by lofty 
mountains, only broken by a cleft 
of sufficient breadth to give egress 
to the crystal river, whose leaping 
waters filled our camp with per- 
petual melody. We reached it, as 
last year, by canoes which awaited our coming, 
and of which we instantly availed ourselves to 
reach our coveted Mecca. I was greatly pleased 
14 



106 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

to find that my last year's guides were again at 
my service. I wished no better, and I was 
flattered by their salutation and their assurance 
that they wished to render service to no more 
patient angler. No one of the party had reason 
to murmur at the men assigned him. All seemed 
equally expert with paddle and setting pole, and 
all, with a single exception, could gaff his fish at 
the right moment and with mathematical pre- 
cision. If they occasionally missed, and, by a 
false stroke, lost their prize, it is only what some- 
times happens to the best and wisest in every de- 
partment of life. What a "raree show" for an 
admiring world would that man be who had never 
blundered ! Of some of the mistakes made in gaf- 
fing, and of the effect of these mistakes upon the 
mild-tempered gentlemen who were the victims of 
them, I shall have something to say hereafter — 
only remarking now, in passing, that skill in gaffing 
is considered the highest accomplishment of an 
Indian guide. I have seen feats of skill by gaffers 
which were marvelous in their lightning-like ra- 
pidity and magical dexterity. The Indian is at no 
time so wholly an Indian as when, with flashing 
eye and distended nostril — with every nerve strung 
for the work before him, and with attitude as fixed 
and immovable. as a marble statue — he is await- 
ing his opportunity to gaff his fish. It is the poise 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 107 

of the eagle awaiting the auspicious moment to 
dash upon his selected victim; the crouching of 
the lion ready to leap upon his prey. ~No angler's 
gallery is perfect without a picture of an Indian 
gaffer thus ready to strike. 

Each canoe has two guides. Both are necessary 
to propel the frail craft over the impetuous rapids 
which are met with in every salmon river ; and 
they are equally necessary in guiding the canoe 
down the rapids, which are generally boiling caul- 
drons, full of rocks and whirlpools and treacherous 
currents. Running, as these rapids often do, ten 
or fifteen miles an hour, contact with a rock is full 
of peril. But this seldom happens. I remember 
but a single instance, and that was the result of 
overloading rather than the lack of skill or judg- 
ment in the canoemen. 

Two hours of steady pulling brought us to our 
camp, where we found several fishers who had 
been awaiting our coming to strike their tents and 
leave the river. They had had good sport, but 
not equal to that of last year. Why ? was a ques- 
tion they were unable to answer. Most likely 
because they came too late to meet the first run of 
fish, which were believed to have passed up at the 
full of the spring freshet, when successful angling 
is not deemed practicable, and when even tide- 
water fishing with nets is seldom attempted. This 
theory was partially confirmed by the fact that 



108 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

those who had gone to the upper pools had no 
cause of complaint. Ordinarily, the best time to 
" whip " a river is when the first spring freshet is 
subsiding. Then the fish are fresh from the sea 
and far more eager and muscular than after a long 
sojourn in fresh water. Except upon compulsion, 
no one should defer his visit to a salmon river later 
than the middle of June. On a good river there 
will be tolerable fishing until the middle of August, 
but the cream of the sport is only available on this 
river from the tenth of June to the fourth of July. 
It was not our luck, either last year or this, to be 
able to choose our time. We hope, however, to do 
so on some future occasion. We shall then know 
whether it is possible to experience any higher 
pleasure, or to achieve any grander successes, than 
have rendered memorable our two visits to the 
Cascapedia. 

As is the manner of all true anglers, our unknown 
friends gave us a most hearty welcome. Their 
spacious board was loaded with every coveted deli- 
cacy, freshly caught and artistically cooked salmon 
constituting, of course, the chief and most palatable 
dish. And salmon only reveal their unapproachable 
delicacy when thus served. If the fastidious gour- 
mand is rendered happy by such stale specimens 
of the delicious fish as he has served up to him a 
thousand miles from where they are caught, into 
what spasms of ecstacy would he be thrown by 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 109 

partaking of the delicate morsel while the golden 
flakes still retain their full and luscious flavor t 
Such golden flakes melted upon our palates on this 
pleasant occasion ; and if no sparkling wines were 
brought forward to crown the feast, we found a 
better substitute in an abundant supply of excellent 
coffee, far more delicious to our taste than would 
have been the fabled " nectar of the gods." 

After a hasty adieu and a whole volume of good 
wishes, we were left temporary " monarchs of all 
we surveyed," and, with two beside — Captain 
Grant, of England, and Mr. Kinear, of St. John 
— the sole occupants of fifty miles of as splendid 
salmon waters as ever received the fly of a jolly 
angler. 

Camp-life in pleasant weather on trout stream or 
salmon river, with agreeable companions and pass- 
able sport is, to the angler, the very perfection of 
enjoyment. He covets nothing so much as these 
periodical respites from rasping care and social con- 
ventionalities. They are full of sunshine in their 
realization, and they remain a pleasant memory 
forever. 

Our first camping ground was all that heart 
could wish — a charming valley, encircled by an 
amphitheatre of mountains, wood-clad to their 
very summit, with the river, transparent as the 
atmosphere, moving in graceful undulations to the 
sea. It took but a few hours to pitch our tents, 



110 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

to extemporise a dining hall and kitchen, and to 
settle down to the solid comfort and enjoyment 
coveted by those whose simple tastes lead them to 
these quiet places. 

There are, popularly, erroneous ideas entertained 
of the comforts or discomforts of camp-life. These 
ideas have been for the most part derived from the 
real or imaginary pictures painted by novices in 
wood-craft. One may be quite as comfortable in 
a bark or log shanty or under a canvas tent as in 
a well appointed hostelry. It only requires a 
knowledge of what is essential to comfort and the 
experience necessary to apply this knowledge prac- 
tically. To "rough it" does not necessarily imply 
wet feet, damp clothing, a hard bed, insufficient 
covering, a leaky tent, hard tack and stale bacon. 
These are all available to those who prefer them, 
and the chances are ten to one that you will have 
them all until you learn that none of them are 
either necessary or desirable. If you cannot pro- 
cure what I have found to be unprocurable (water- 
proof leather boots), a pair of thick rubber shoes, 
for wet days and damp places, will keep your feet 
dry. With a rubber coat and leggings, except in 
a drenching tempest, you need wear no damp 
clothing. A piece of heavy canvas, with open 
seams through which to pass your extemporised 
stretchers, will give you a spring bed, which, with 
aromatic balsam boughs for a mattrass and plenty 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. Ill 

of blankets to keep you warm, makes as comfort- 
able a conch, as yon can bny of the upholsterer. A 
leaky tent or shanty is an unnecessary nuisance ; 
while, by using a little forethought, your cuisine 
may be as palatable and healthful as any epicure 
could desire. It all depends upon one's own skill 
and knowledge, and these, like all wisdom, are 
only acquired by experience. 

Nor to attain these comforts is it necessary to 
render yourself ridiculous by transporting a cart- 
load of luggage. A large sack, which any one can 
shoulder, will hold your A or wall-tent, your bed- 
ding and all your rough garments. A hand valise 
is sufficient for your "store clothes." Two or 
three moderate sized packages will cover your 
necessary provender for an ordinary trip, and your 
tackling is easily portable. A Saratoga trunk on 
trout-stream or salmon river is as conclusive as a 
sonorous bray that a donkey is in the neighbor- 
hood. Yet these are sometimes seen, ordinarily 
accompanied by a biped decked off in long boots, 
velvet pants and jacket, a jaunty hat bedizzened 
with gaudy flies, and a body belt ornamented with 
bowie knife and pistol, as if he expected at every 
turn to encounter herds of wild cats or panthers, 
or a whole tribe of blood-thirsty Indians anxious 
for his precious scalp. All anglers in their wan- 
derings have encountered such comical specimens 
of cockney sportsmen. They are generally harm- 



112 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

less, however, catching but few fish and killing 
too little game to materially affect the supply. 

It is the attractive feature of these preserved 
waters that they can only be fished by those hold- 
ing official permits to do so. In starting for a 
pool, your anticipations of sport are not disturbed 
by the apprehension that it may have already been 
seized and held by some " earlier bird " than your- 
self. It is all your own, to make the most of how 
and when you please. This conscious security 
comports with the leisurely habits of the true 
angler, and prevents those f eelings of envy, strife 
and jealousy which are too often excited when one 
finds a favorite bit of water swept by a bevy of 
bait-fishers and lashed into foam by their whip-cord 
lines and heavy sinkers swung out from " larraping 
rods" huge enough to lift a leviathan. Here 
you pay for what you have, and you are sure to 
have what you pay for. No sly departures ! ~No 
lying awake all night to "steal the march" of 
your neighbors in the morning ! No studied decep- 
tion ! JSTo unseemly racing to get ahead of " the 
other fellows ! " Your assigned pool waits for you, 
whether the fish do or not ; and you cast without 
haste or fear of disturbance, as the honored guest 
takes his ease in his inn. How many weary miles 
I have paddled and tramped among the Adiron- 
dacks to get out of the reach of the huge army 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 113 

of " Murray's fools," who for a time swarmed that 
angler's paradise, with no more appreciation of 
the art, or of the delectable recreation of angling 
than a donkey has of the heavenly harmonies. I 
owe to them, however, the pleasant recollection of 
many weeks of delightful solitude and repose 
amid pathless woods and unfrequented lakes and 
streamlets. So I forgive them — glad, neverthe- 
less, to be able, here, upon the far-off Cascapedia, 
to fish undisturbed, and to feast upon the magnifi- 
cent scenery which everywhere meets the eye and 
gladdens the spirit, without fear of molestation 
from cockney intruders. This assured isolation 
during the hours set apart for angling constitutes 
one of the chief charms of these preserved waters, 
"Yet" (as that most lovable lover of nature, 
Thoreau, says ) " I would not insist upon any one's 
trying it who has not a pretty good supply of in^ 
ternal sunshine ; otherwise he would have, I judge, 
to spend too much of his time in fighting with his 
dark humors. To live alone comfortably, we must 
have that self-comfort which rays out of nature — ■ 
a portion of it at least." 

Forest solitudes, away off upon and beyond the 
verge of civilization, have an irresistible fascina- 
tion. To be alone becomes a passion with some 
men. There are to-day, as there have been in all 
the past, hundreds of hunters and trappers in the 
15 



114 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

wilderness of the far west who cannot endure con- 
tact with their fellow men, and are only happy 
when remote from all human habitations. But 
this exaggerated love of isolation — of perpetual 
separation from their kind — is no proof of intel- 
lectual superiority or of an exalted appreciation of 
the beauty and grandeur of nature uncontaminated 
by the depravities and meannesses of a selfish civil- 
ization. Moral or esthetic considerations seldom 
enter the minds of these " mighty hunters." Their 
hermit-life is simply proof of a morbid and dis- 
torted condition of mind, which is neither to be 
commended, admired nor imitated. It would be as 
untruthful and as unjust to associate the angler 
who seeks, temporarily, for repose and recreation, 
the solitudes of the forest, with these uncouth, un- 
kempt and unlettered trappers, as it would be to 
proclaim all angling debasing because professional 
" pot-hunters," who are alike indifferent to times 
and seasons and the processes by which they 
achieve results, engage in it. 

Nor must it be inferred that isolation is the fixed 
status of the angler. At proper times and seasons 
in no class of men is the social element more fully 
developed. To have this demonstrated it is only 
necessary to visit the camp-fire after the sports of 
the day are over. John Wilson's "Nodes Am- 
brosiana " and " Dies Borealis" are no mere fie- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 115 

tions. His unapproachable dialogues have their 
counterpart under many another canvas in our 
own primitive forests. They may not always be 
marked by the profound philosophy, rollicking 
humor, tender pathos, or glowing imagery which 
have given the recorded sayings of these eminent 
anglers a foremost place among the classics of the 
century. But they are kindred in tone and spirit, 
and often approach them in all the good qualities 
which will render them the delight of all thought- 
ful men of all the ages. 

It is the recollection of these social re-unions, 
participated in by men of kindred tastes and sym- 
pathies, who have sought these far-off solitudes to 
be happy in their own simple way, quite as much 
as the strike and struggle of the gamey salmon, 
which makes the memory of these seasons of re- 
creation and repose " a joy forever." Those who 
do not find it so have not yet imbibed the spirit 
of the Fathers, nor attained unto the highest possi- 
bilities of the gentle art. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



A PLEASANT MORNING THE JUDGE'S FIRST SALMON. 

'Neath cloistered boughs each floral bell that swingeth, 

And tolls its perfume on the passing air, 
Makes Sabbath in the field, and ever ringeth 
A call to prayer. 

— [Horace Smith. 

Give me mine angle. We'll to the river ; there, 

My music playing afar off, I will betray 

Tawny finn'd fishes ; my bended hook shall pierce 

Their slimy jaws ; and as I draw them up, 

I'll think them every one an Antony, 

And say, " Ah, ha ! you're caught." 

— \Shakspeare. 



jllf UP first morning in camp was 
cloudless and serene. The "cal- 
lar mountain air" was pure and 
bracing. The gentle western 
breeze came down from the hills 
freighted with the perfume of a 
million flowers and the melody 
of a thousand songsters, calling 
up the beautiful apostrophe of 
the psalmist : " Praise waiteth 
for Thee, God, in Zion ; I will lift up mine eyes 
unto the hills from whence cometh my help ; my 
help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven 
and earth." The leaves, besprinkled with "the 




PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 117 

dew of the morning," sparkled like diamonds in 
the sunlight, while the river murmured out its 
perpetual anthem as it moved along its cleft path- 
way to the sea. Here and there, on the high-up 
summits of the hills which encircled the beautiful 
valley in which we had pitched our tents, the morn- 
ing mist, transparent as a bridal veil, hung in mid- 
air like a benediction, while every forest tree and 
flowering shrub swayed to and fro like a waving 
censer before the grand altar of nature. 

And in due time, as if to fill up the measure of 
our devout gratitude to a kind Providence for hav- 
ing permitted us to " cast our lines in such pleasant 
places," there came up from the camp-fire the odor 
of broiled salmon, mingled with the aroma of 
slowly distilling Mocha, whetting the already keen 
appetite for the morning meal in rapid prepara- 
tion. And when served, "there was silence for 
the space of half an hour," when the Judge held 
up his crutch in speechless thanksgiving for such 
a luscious repast amid such gorgeous surroundings. 

The first business in order was the allotment of 
pools. There are three within easy distance of the 
camp. Each usually affords ample sport, but one 
of them is more coveted than the others because 
it uniformly abounds in larger fish. As the Judge 
had never taken a salmon, this pool was awarded 
him by unanimous assent — a striking illustration of 



118 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

the self-sacrificing courtesy which, distinguishes all 
true disciples of the gentle art. For, be it under- 
stood, it is no mean proof of magnanimity to volun- 
tarily surrender to another the best place to fish. 
It requires more grace than to give up a " sure 
thing " in Wall street. This latter sacrifice goes no 
deeper than the pocket; the former touches the 
core of your highest enjoyment. Whoever makes 
this sacrifice has the spirit of the good Samaritan. 
All anglers may not be thus magnanimous, and 
those who are do not always find their magna- 
nimity appreciated. But such is the experience of 
all doers of good deeds. Charitable men, and men 
of kindly sympathies, are as often accused of osten- 
tation as commended for benevolence. ~No matter 
if they do try to " do good by stealth and blush to 
find it fame," there are critics who will pronounce 
their modesty hypocrisy, and their blushes the 
flush of anger that their charities are not pro- 
claimed from the house-top. Not so the Judge. 
He appreciated the well-meant compliment, and 
gave due expression to the feeling of gratitude 
which this " offering of friendship " excited in his 
" manly bosom." 

The issue of this little bit of courtesy was much 
more satisfactory than a similar instance of pisca- 
torial self-sacrifice which I remember. It occurred 
in the " "North Woods," on one of the inlets which 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 119 

connect the Fulton chain of lakes. I was having 
excellent sport; almost every cast met with a 
response, and my creel was becoming unpleasantly 
weighty with its precious burden. Just as I had 
reached the margin of a favorite pool from which 
I had never failed to beguile a half dozen large 
fish, I observed in the near distance a clever fel- 
low who was passionately fond of the sport, but 
who, having no skill, had no " luck." " I don't 
understand it," was his stereotyped bewailment. 
And just here was his trouble ; he did not "under- 
stand it." He persisted in whipping the stream 
with a line of four-fold the proper dimensions, and 
made his casts with a rod equally out of propor- 
tion. I, however, liked his pluck and patience, 
and seeing my opportunity to do him a favor, 1 
invited him to take my place at the pool into 
which I was about to cast. Although this hap- 
pened twenty years ago I have not to this day 
been quite able to decide whether (remembering 
the sequel) I did a generous or a foolish thing in 
thus surrendering my prerogative to one who, how- 
ever grateful, proved himself illy qualified to make 
the best possible use of his opportunity. His huge 
sinker fell into the water with a splash, carrying 
with it a number-nine hook covered with a full 
half ounce of wriggling worms, when it was at 
once seized by a three-pound trout, which in an- 



120 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

other instant was dangling from the limb of a 
neighboring tree into which he had been elevated 
by the excited angler. And there he hung for 
twenty minutes from an inextricably tangled line, 
which was only recovered, with what depended 
from it, after such turbulence as to render any 
further angling in that pool impracticable for the 
day. But in spite of his awkwardness he saved 
his trout, was made happy by his success, and over- 
whelmed me with thanks for my courtesy. 

The Judge may not have been more grateful, 
but he entered upon his work with more grace and 
skill. His first casts were made with becoming 
caution, as if feeling his way for the open joints 
in the harness of a crafty witness. He was too 
wise an angler to drop his fly into the centre of the 
pool abruptly. Like a wary General, he worked 
his way to the heart of the citadel by " gradual 
approaches." A novice would have charged him 
with undue timidity, just as impatient lookers on 
sometimes accused him of irrelevancy when cau- 
tiously drawing the net of his irresistible logic 
around his bewildered victim in the witness box 
during that famous Brooklyn combat of intellect- 
ual giants. He knew what he was about then ; he 
knows what he is about now. He was too wise a 
lawyer to thwart himself by inordinate haste ; and 
he is too skillful an angler to hazard success by 
undue precipitancy. Foot by foot his casts were 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 121 

lengthened and swept gracefully across the current 
of the pool. Foot by foot he worked his way to 
the objective point, where rested what he coveted 
more than the verdict of judge or jury. And now, 
at last, the fly drops gently upon the glistening 
surface of the dark water, just at the point desired, 
when there followed a rush and strike, and a 
momentary pause, as if fish and fisher were alike 
astounded, and then click, whiz, whir-r-r went the 
reel, as if harnessed to a lightning train with a 
thunderbolt for a locomotive. Away went the fish 
with two hundred feet of line, but stopping at 
that distance as suddenly as if arrested by a pe- 
remptory order of the court. Then came the tug 
of war ; first to hold him — that required muscle ; 
then to bear with him while he sulked — that 
required patience. The Judge had both, and both 
were brought into skilful requisition. For ten 
minutes not a fin stirred; but the taut line, as 
it resisted the combined pressure of the current 
and the fish, thrummed like an seolian harp, and 
made every nerve tingle with delight. As became 
the watchful angler that he is, the eyes of the 
Judge were immovably fixed upon his line as it 
stretched out straight before him. He believed 
the fish near the opposite bank in a direct line with 
his rod, and he was looking intently for some sign 
of life from the spot where he supposed his fish 
16 



122 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

was sulking, when click ! click ! whiz-z-z, again 
went the reel, and a huge fish leaped his whole 
length out of water a hundred feet above him. 
" Hello," said the Judge, " there's another fellow ! " 
"ISTo, that's your fish," said the Indian gaffer. 
" Blazes ! you don't say ? What's he doing there? 
He's not within a hundred feet of my line." " It's 
your fish, sir. The swift current makes your line 
bend like the new moon." And this was the fact ; 
but the illusion was so perfect that it required 
several like experiences to convince him that his 
Indian gaffer was not " fooling him " upon that 
occasion. 

After an hour's struggle, and with a skill and 
judgment which excited the admiration of all who 
witnessed the contest, the fish was killed ' and cap- 
tured. When he kicked the beam at the twenty 
eight pound notch, the Judge was a proud and a 
happy man. There are many things he will for- 
get as old Time weaves silver threads amid his 
auburn locks, but he will never forget his astonish- 
ment when that fish showed himself one hundred 
feet from the point where he was intently watch- 
ing him. 

The next day Dun was awarded the Judge's pool 
and had his usual luck — making a larger score 
than any of us, and breaking more rods ; not 
because he had less general skill, but because he 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 123 

could not receive a challenge from a fish without 
returning an impetuous " strike " on the instant. 
One may " strike " too soon as well as too late. 
In angling, as in everything else, there is a a happy 
mean" — just the right mode and moment to 
strike your fish without imperilling your tackling 
or tearing the hook from his mouth. To invari- 
ably compass this right moment requires steadier 
nerve, greater forbearance and a nicer appreciation 
of time and opportunity than falls to the lot of 
most anglers. A few have the gift ; but it only 
comes to old trout fishers after much practice and 
^Vmany discomfitures. 

Our friend had been casting half an hour at " a 
gay gambolier " whose special vocation seemed to 
be to leap at nothing and keep just a tail's breadth 
from the lure sent to him. His clisportings proved 
his agility but were provokingly tantalizing ; and 
Dun was just ready to give him up as " a hopeless 
case," when he made a dash for the fly and was 
astonished to find himself hooked. With a rush 
and a leap which eclipsed all his previous demon- 
strations, he started for the opposite shore as if in 
a hurry to deliver some message he had forgotten. 
It was just the last place in the neighborhood of 
the pool one cared to have his fish take to, for it 
was full of jagged rocks and hidden bowlders. 
Aware of this, Dun instantly did his best to bring 



124 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

him back into open water. But after a few des- 
perate tugs, he was compelled, for the time, to give 
up the effort and permit him to sulk — preserving, 
however, a taut line, measured with mathematical 
nicety, upon the stubborn brute. Salmon will 
sometimes sulk thus for hours, in seeming disregard 
and contempt of any pressure you dare bring upon 
them. For more than thirty minutes Dun sat 

" Like Patience on a monument, smiling at Grief," 

when he deemed it high time to assume the aggres- 
sive. So he ordered his canoemen to paddle cau- 
tiously toward the " objective point," while he 
reeled up his two hundred feet of taut line until 
every muscle ached with the pressure. He had 
reached within fifty feet of his leader, but not a 
tail wagged ; thirty feet, but nothing was felt but 
the steady tension of the quivering line ; ten feet, 
the same. All was as still and motionless as the 
old granite bowlder which looked down upon the 
dark waters amid whose eddying currents leader 
and fly were hidden from vision. Angler and 
gaffer were alike perplexed. So near a fish and 
no sign of life ! Nothing like it had passed into 
the annals of angling. " Slide your paddle down 
cautiously and start him," said Dun. Down slid 
the paddle, but nothing came of it. " Try again ; 
but take care that he doesn't rush under the canoe." 



PLEASURES OF ANGLLTO. 125 

Down again went the paddle, when, mystery of 
mysteries ! it struck, not a salmon, but the rock 
around which the salmon had twisted the leader, 
broken loose from the fly and so escaped, a wiser 
if not a better fish, quite prepared to resume his 
game of leap-frog long before his disappointed 
captor could reel in the fifty ton oowlder at which 
he had teen tugging lustily for more than thirty 
minutes ! 

Our conversation in camp was of rather a frivo- 
lous character that evening. We were afraid to 
introduce any weighty subject lest our friend should 
interpret it as a personal reflection ! 



CHAPTEE XYII. 



DIFFERENCE IN FISH GAFFING SALMON 

RE EL-CLICK. 



THE 



Doubt not, sir, but that Angling is an art, and an art worth 
your learning : the question is, rather, whether you be capable 
of learning it. — [Sir Izaak Walton. 




X one sense, all salmon, like all 
men, are alike : but like all men, 
also, they are very unlike in be- 
havior under given circumstances. 
I once brought a fifteen-pound 
salmon to gaff in ten minutes, 
and I have had a two hours' 
struggle with others of no greater 
weight; just as some men suc- 
cumb when so much as a shadow 
of adversity crosses their pathway, while others 
fight on so long as a peg remains to hang a hope 
upon. The former are the negatives of the race, 
only useful in swelling the numerals of a census 
table. The latter not only "conquer fate" by 
their pluck and energy, but are the architects of 
towns, cities, states and empires. It is only when 
" Greek meets Greek " that there " comes the tug 
of war," and it is only when the angler strikes a 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 127 

fighting salmon that he properly appreciates their 
muscular energy and great endurance. 

It is not always possible to give a reason for the 
difference in the play of different fish of the same 
species. Every one has his theory. One says it is 
in the sex. Another, that it depends upon their 
recent or remote advent into fresh water, and 
others upon where the fish is hooked. It is un- 
doubtedly true that, as a rule, there is more game 
in the male than in the female salmon, and that 
fish fresh from the ocean are the most muscular and 
ferocious. But I have had equal sport with fish 
of either sex, and have found as tough customers 
fifty miles from the sea as in close proximity to it. 
The difference, I fancy, depends upon how and 
where they are hooked. A barb through the 
tongue of a salmon is like a curb on the jaws of a 
horse ; he may have the disposition to run, but he 
doesn't fancy the unpleasant sensation which fol- 
lows his attempt to do so. Another reason is, the 
seeming dull perception of some fish. Like some 
men, it takes them a good while to get over their 
astonishment at finding something wrong, and 
before they really comprehend the situation, they 
lose their advantage and are gaffed. 

I had a very interesting illustration of this one 
day. I was fishing at a point where counter cur- 
rents met, and where, consequently, it was difficult 



128 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

to keep out a straight line without constant cast- 
ing. Becoming weary with this sort of perpetual 
motion, I allowed my line to slacken and my fly to 
perambulate at its own sweet will. While they 
were thus floating in a circle, the fly out of sight, 
I felt a slight tug and began to reel up leisurely, 
annoyed that my lure had, as I supposed, been 
taken by a trout. Every movement, for half a 
minute, seemed to confirm this impression, and I 
had stopped reeling to give expression to my dis- 
appointment, when the fish started in gallant 
salmon style, leaped his full length out of water, 
and gave me all I could do for three hours and. 
twenty minutes before he was brought to gaff", and. 
then he was only struck by a chance blow as he, 
was rushing, in full life, past my canoe in swift; 
water. What I supposed, at first, to be merely a, 
two or three-pound trout proved to be a twenty- 
seven-pound salmon. If I had been in shoal 
water when I first reeled him up to within twenty 
feet of my canoe, I might have ended his career in 
ten minutes. The hook had struck him at some 
callous point, and he followed the gentle lead I 
gave him without sense of pain or danger, and 
only made a dash when he saw the canoe with its 
threatening surroundings. 

In gaffing this fish while on the run in swift, 
water, my Indian guide proved himself an expert; 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 129 

in the most difficult department of the art. The 
expression of my surprise and admiration made 
him a happy Indian. He knew he had done 
something which deserved commendation, and it 
pleased him to find that it was observed. In our 
every day life we are too sparing of our compli- 
ments. When any one within the circle of our 
acquaintance does well — whether hod-carrier or 
Senator, crossing-sweeper or orator — it does no 
harm to let him know that his well-doing is recog- 
nized and appreciated. Judicious commendation 
is a more potent stimulant than we are apt to 
think. But for it, many who have come to excel 
in their several vocations would have grown up 
into the merest mediocrity, while for lack of it, 
multitudes have ceased to struggle, because they 
have received no token that their aspirations were 
approved. A good word, where deserved, costs 
nothing, but it is often magical in its effects. My 
simple " Bravo ! no Indian on the Cascapedia could 
have done better," was more to my guide than are 
the plaudits of the multitude to the orator on the 
rostrum. I never afterward lost a fish from want 
of diligence on the part of my gaffer. 

But others did. Dun had hooked a very large 
fish and had fought him bravely for two hours — 
bringing him frequently within the reach of his 
gaffer, and as frequently was obliged to give him 

\n 



130 PLEASURES OF ANGLLNG. 

line to prevent him from breaking off in his fright 
when foully struck at. Finally the gaffer reached 
him, struck out wildly, scratched the fish and 
snapped the leader ! The silence which followed 
was a grand exhibition of fortitude and forbear- 
ance. It may have been that my friend could find 
no words suitable to the occasion ; but I preferred 
to attribute the Christian-like grace with which 
he succumbed to the inevitable, to the possession 
of that rare virtue commended by the Scripture : 
" Greater is he that ruleth his spirit than he that 
taketh a city." That gaffer gaffed no more for 
Dun. 

A like misfortune happened to General Aethue 
not long afterward, under even more provoking 
circumstances. He had hooked his fish, played 
him with consummate skill and brought him 
several times to the very feet of his gaffer — the 
last time seemingly a dead fish and into water not 
twelve inches deep. But a spell seemed to be on 
the poor Indian. He struck once, twice, thrice, 
without effect — except upon the leader, which he 
broke. But even then the fish did not stir, neither 
did the gaffer. The fish seemed bewildered, as 
the gaffer certainly was, until the General quietly 
intimated that as the fish was waiting to be gaffed 
it would be well to gratify him ; when the Indian 
seemed to comprehend the situation, and pro- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 131 

ceeded to do what, if he had attempted two seconds 
sooner, would have been a success. But before 
the gaff fell where the fish was he wasn't there, 
and thirty-five pounds of as fine salmon as ever 
wagged a tail floated off with the current, in all 
probability to die " unwept, unhonored and un- 
sung." Expletives, like notes in music, are mod- 
ulated to meet the intensity of the emotions. The 
General's expletive was pitched on the upper regis- 
ter, and the gaffer would have been pitched into 
the Cascapedia if he hadn't looked as if that was 
just what he expected. The explanation was that 
the water was not deep enough to permit the gaff- 
hook to go under the fish. The consequence was 
it glanced along its side and back, struck the leader, 
which it broke, and gave the fish free rein. And 
yet this mishap occurred to one of the most skill- 
ful and careful gaffers on the river. The poor 
fellow hung his head for a week, but it was the last 
fish he lost. 

If it requires skill to always gaff a fish, it re- 
quires equal skill to always properly respond to a 
fish which leaps while the angler is playing him. 
To elevate your rod as the fish leaps, and to hold 
it at the attained elevation as he goes down, is to 
almost inevitably lose him. All that is necessary 
to be done at this supremely exciting moment, is 
to let the tip of the rod descend with the fish. 



132 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

You thus prevent the strain and snap which must 
otherwise ensne. This movement of the rod at the 
right instant, under such circumstances, is the 
most difficult lesson to learn in the whole art of 
angling. No incident in the sport is more excit- 
ing than these salmon leaps. If you do not then 
preserve your wits you will, most certainly lose 
your salmon. The lesson I learned in maple pool 
(of which anon) in this direction, was a lesson 
which I had to learn sooner or later ; but the 
recollection of it will be a grief forever. 

What the long-roll is to the soldier the reel- 
click is to the angler. It is the call to battle and 
stirs the blood like the sound of a trumpet. 

Eo salmon ever takes the hook when alarmed. 
He may come to it with a rush, but with his mo- 
tion so exactly graduated as to have but little mo- 
mentum after the lure is reached — like a jumper 
making for the goal. The result is that on the 
very instant of striking the reel seldom gives out 
more than a click or two, unless the angler strikes 
simultaneously — which most anglers do ; whether 
wisely or not, is a problem yet unsolved by the 
masters of the art. The moment, however, the 
fish feels the sting of the hook he shoots off with 
a rush, causing, by his rapid movement, that whiz 
and whir-r which, to the angler, is the most thrill- 
ing music that ever falls upon his ear. The delib- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 133 

erate click, click, which succeeds the strike, is the 
measured prelude to the grand chorus which fol- 
lows when the astonished fish enters upon his mad 
career. These sounds alternate through the pro- 
tracted struggle ; now a single click, as the fish 
shakes his head in his sulking moments, and now 
a whiz and whir-r-r, as he rushes and leaps in his 
desperate efforts to free himself from the stinging 
barb which holds him. When a determined fish 
is thus hooked, the same stirring music is repeated 
a hundred times, until, finally, the poor fellow is 
only able to give spasmodic tugs, moving the line 
but the length of a single cog, the reel responding 
by slow and measured clicks like the tap of a 
muffled drum beating 

" Funeral marches to the grave." 

But these death-tugs are full of peril. More 
fish " tear out " then than at any other moment 
of the struggle. To prevent such a catastrophe 
requires the most watchful and delicate manipula- 
tion. Safety lies in a cautious easing off of the 
pressure on the line with every movement of the 
fish, being careful, however, that no slack is allow- 
ed to render his vicious wrench effective and fatal. 
To see an angler at the moment when a mammoth 
salmon thus escapes — his rod at the perpendicu- 
lar, his line dangling loosely in the breeze, his 
mouth wide open, and his muscles limp as a sea- 



134 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

weed — is to see a comical embodiment of disgust, 
astonishment and despair. His bewailment and 
self-npbraidings find expression in the unspoken 
thought : " With a little more care how different 
' it might have been.' " All salmon fishers have 
passed through this experience and understand it. 
No others can, however graphically described. 
Did not the poet have this picture in his mind 
when he wrote : 

Then she took up her burden of life again, 

Saying only: " It might have been." 

God pity them both and pity us all 

Who vainly the dreams of our youth recall ; 

For of all the sad words of tongue or pen, 

The saddest are these: '■ It might have been." 

There is but one sound in nature, animate or 
inanimate, which at all resembles the whir of a 
reel when in full play — the rattling trill of a king- 
fisher when on the wing. It is a singular coinci- 
dence that the music of the best angler known to 
ornithology finds its most perfect counterpart 
in that which man finds indispensable to his 
successful pursuit of a pastime that constitutes its 
life-long vocation. This bird most abounds on 
swift-running waters. They are in great numbers 
on the Cascapedia, and more than once my reel 
and this feathered angler have joined in a duet, to 
my great amusement and delight. They were in 
as perfect accord as if brought into concert pitch 
by the hand of the same master. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 



TROUT FISHING 



DO FISH HEAR 
MAKING. 



A MERRY 



I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to 
look upon one another next morning. — [Sir Izaak Walton. 




ALMOE" fishing is confessedly the 
highest department in the school 
of angling. With very rare ex- 
ceptions, the tact and skill neces- 
sary for its successful practice is 
only acquired by long experience 
in the minor branches of the art, 
first, in early youth, with bait, for 
chub, perch and sunfish ; next, in 
the transition state, with troll, for 
bass, pickerel and muscalonge ; and lastly, when 
the mind takes in the exciting realities and poetic 
possibilities of the art, with fly, in streamlet, river 
and lake. It is not until after all is attained that 
is attainable in trout waters that salmon are sighed 
for, and only very few who thus sigh are ever able 
to have their longings gratified. But those whose 
experience has been limited to bait or troll seldom 
aspire to anything beyond the pleasant amusement 



136 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

which these primitive modes of angling afford 
them. Having never cast a fly they have no con- 
ception of the superiority of that mode of angling 
over all others, and so soon weary of a pastime 
which, from its sameness and tameness, fails to 
attract when something more than mere muscular 
exercise or physical excitement is required to hold 
its votaries. A gray-haired bait-fisher is very rare, 
while the passion for fly-casting, whether for trout 
or salmon, grows by what it feeds upon, and con- 
tinues a source of the highest pleasure even after 
the grasshopper becomes a burden. But this is not 
strange ; for there is as much difference between 
these extremes of the art as there is between the 
harsh music of a hurdy-gurdy and the divine har- 
mony of the violin. 

There is, however, such a similarity between 
trout and salmon fishing that pleasure can be found 
in either by the expert in both. And as trout 
usually abound in salmon waters, they are often 
fished for as a rest from the heavy work involved 
in the capture of salmon. 

Judge Fullerton had been familiar with trout 
streams from his youth up. There are few brooks 
or rivers where trout "most do congregate," from 
Maine to New Brunswick, in which he has not 
" slain his thousands." I was not surprised, there- 
fore, to find him very early hankering after a day's 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 137 

hunt for trout. Nor was I any more surprised to 
find him returning to camp long before half the 
day was over, with thirty-five pounds of splendid 
fish, ranging from half a pound to three pounds in 
weight. Subsequently he met with even greater 
success — once taking forty -five pounds during a 
short afternoon. As an experiment, I myself caught 
sixteen large trout in thirty minutes, with an eight- 
ounce rod, without a landing net. It was unsports- 
manlike sport. My only excuse was to see what 
could be done in these waters ; and as the fish could 
all be put to good use, there was no waste and con- 
sequently no upbraidings of conscience. 

The trout in the Cascapedia, and, indeed, in all 
these salmon rivers, are mostly sea trout, running 
up the rivers every season, like salmon, to spawn. 
When they leave the salt water, their spots have 
scarcely the slightest tinge of crimson. Later, they 
assume a somewhat brighter hue ; but they never 
attain the beautiful brilliancy of the brook-trout in 
our home streams. Nor, as a rule, do they rise as 
sprightly to the fly. Indeed, like salmon, they 
usually strike without projecting themselves so 
much as their head's length above the surface. But 
they are strong, and as they run much larger than 
the average brook-trout in any of our home waters 
(save, perhaps, the Rangely lakes), they afford 
splendid play, and often draw the angler away 

18 



138 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

from the more kingly but far more laborious sport 
which salmon afford. 

There are in these waters brook as well as sea- 
trout, but they are found mostly in or near the 
mouths of the small streams emptying into the main 
river. When we coveted a meal of them, ranging 
from two to four ounces, we knew just where to 
find them, and, what is equally important, just how 
to crisp them. There may be a more delicious dish 
than small brook-trout properly cooked, just as 
there may be a more delicious fruit than the straw- 
berry, but the fact has not yet passed into the 
annals of modern discovery. 

It may not be out of place nor uninteresting to 
some of my readers to say, while I think of it, that 
I took some pains to gather the opinions of our 
Indian guides on the mooted question, " Do fish 
hear ? " To my surprise I found that there was 
but one opinion — the negative of the question. 
And a great many facts were given in support of 
this opinion, much to my satisfaction, as I have for 
a long time been fully satisfied that all fish are 
" deaf as adders." 

This question was amusingly discussed the other 
day. Having arranged to change camp, we re- 
quested one of the baggage canoe-guides, who 
moved off a day in advance of us, to mark two or 
three spots which he knew to be good casting 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 139 

places, that we might try them as we came to 
them. We soon found a cedar slab stuck up on 
which was written in charcoal : 

"Fish Hear!" 

The occupant of the first canoe which came 
along, not caring to make the experiment, and see- 
ing his opportunity for a play upon words, added : 

"Do Fish Hear?" 

The next canoe, catching the joke, wrote : 

"Do not Fish Hear?" 

When the third canoe came up, the contents of 
the placard were read to the Indian, and his opinion 
asked. Looking round for signs of fish, he quietly 
exclaimed : 

"Ugh! Fish not Hear!" 

Although what was intended for a very different 
purpose had resulted in a novel discussion of a 
mooted question, it was decided that the very " bad 
spell " had reached a very wise conclusion. 

For two weeks we were in daily telegraphic 
correspondence with Gen. Arthur, whose illness 
obliged him to return home after he had accom- 
panied us as far as Bangor on our way hither. The 
character of his illness (which subsequently devel- 
oped into a malignant carbuncle) rendered us un- 
easy, and our anxiety could only be appeased by 



^V 



140 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

these daily bulletins. A fatal termination of the 
malady was only avoided, nnder Providence, by 
careful home nursing and the best medical attend- 
ance, aided by a strong constitution and an indom- 
itable will. The announcement of his hopeful 
convalescence was a pleasant piece of news, and 
when word came that he had " started for the Cas- 
capedia," the Judge was eloquent in the expression 
of his gratitude and pleasure. But when one 
delightful Saturday morning he was seen in the 
distance snugly ensconced midships of his canoe, 
there was great joy in camp and preparations were 
made to give him a fitting welcome. 

The Shedden pool, directly in front of the camp, 
had been left unfished for two days that he might 
enjoy it at its best. And it never " panned out " 
more richly than during the first afternoon he 
fished it. In five hours he landed four salmon, 
besides losing one through the stupidity of his 
gaffer, after a two hours' fight. They averaged 
twenty-seven pounds, the largest weighing thirty - 
pounds. With the capture of his first fish the last 
vestige of his illness left him. There is no medi- 
cine equal to the rise, strike and struggle of a 
thirty-pound salmon to bring back lost vigor to 
an appreciative convalescent. 

The advent of the General among us was cele- 
brated by the guides in the evening by a dance. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLLYG. 141 

This was rendered possible, in due form, from the 
fact that one of the Indians was a violinist, and 
had his instrument with him. The lady of the 
neighboring farm-house kindly proffered her best 
room, and her three daughters were quite willing 
to join in the merry-making. It was a pleasant 
reunion, marked by all the decorum, with a thou- 
sand-fold the vivacity usually exhibited by the 
"first families" under like circumstances. The 
violinist was not a Paganini, but he kept perfect 
time with both elbow and heels. The Indians 
were very lively dancers, and the young ladies, by 
the ease and homely grace with which, in their 
tunic-like costumes, they followed the lead of their 
partners, gave evidence of long practice. If none 
of " the gentlemen " (as the guests were politely 
designated) "tripped the light, fantastic toe," it 
was from no discourtesy. The measured steps 
practiced in the salons of "society," compared 
with the hearty movements of these lusty dancers, 
would have been as monotonous as the dull thud 
of a muffled drum compared with the rattling 
thunder of a ponderous trip-hammer. 

The dancing was interspersed with vocal music. 
Two of the young ladies sang, in duet, with exqui- 
site taste and expression, that beautiful Scotch bal- 
lad, " I maun gang awa', lassie ;" and the General, 
not to be outdone in courtesy, recited Burns' " Tarn 



142 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

o' Shanter " and " Cotter's Saturday Night," in a 
most admirable manner, to the great delight of the 
venerable Scotch matron of the household and 
" ithers o' that ilk " who were present. The Judge 
also delighted every one by his good-humored ren- 
dering of that classically pathetic ballad, "Sam 
Jones, the fisherman," while Dun brought tears to 
the eyes of his susceptible audience by artistically 
chanting that profoundly plaintive ditty : 

" On Springfield mountains there did dwell, 
A comely youth I knew full well," — 

which " comely youth," it may be remembered, 
having been cruelly jilted, wandered off broken- 
hearted to die ignominiously from the bite of " a 
pesky sarpent." 

In reportorial parlance, " nothing occurred to 
mar the festivities of the occasion," and all retired 
at an early hour the happier for having participated 
in the innocent hilarity of the evening. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 



A SEARCH AFTER SOLITUDE. 

How use doth breed a habit in a man ! 

The shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, 

I better brook than flourishing peopled towns. 

— [Shakspeai'e. 

It may be laid down as a position which will seldom de- 
ceive, that when a man cannot bear his own company, there 
is something wrong. — [Dr. Johnson. 




AYINGr fished all the pools in the 
neighborhood of our main camp, 
I fancied that I could enjoy my- 
self for a little while in a some- 
what more primitive manner, 
alone, fishing some famous pools 
ten or twelve miles higher up 
the river. For, to tell the truth, 
our luxurious surroundings hardly 
comported with my early educa- 
tion in wood-craft, or with my ideas of the ma- 
terial elements which should enter into the camp- 
life of those who were even ostensibly " roughing 
it." Our commissary had assured us that it would 
be good for our general health to " live low on the 
river." But what a strange conception he had of 



144 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

low living ! Delicious bacon, smoked ham, broiled 
salmon, fried trout, with occasional broiled spring 
chickens, tea and coffee, and oat-meal porridge with 
cream for breakfast ! Canned ox-tail, chicken or 
turtle soup, with boiled salmon, roast or stewed 
lamb (fresh from a neighboring flock), plumb-pud- 
ding, with divers jellies, olives and pickles for din- 
ner, and similar " rough " provender for our 
evening meal ! Superadded to all this, tidy tents, 
with beds that wooed slumber like the music of the 
spheres, and thirty-pound salmon within casting 
distance, waiting to be " taken in out of the wet I" 
Can any of my old Adirondack companions won- 
der that I longed to exchange this sort of " rough " 
life for a day or two of fried pork and hard tack, 
a bark shanty and no conventionalities % And 
my Indian guide was quite as ready for the change 
as myself, in spite of the ten miles of hard push- 
ing that was before him, and the assurance (which 
his past experience afforded him) that I would give 
him no rest during the expedition. 

We left camp at eight o'clock, polled two miles 
and killed two salmon before half-past nine. It 
was an auspicious beginning, and the day closed 
with the capture of two more after we reached our 
destination, although six of the ten hours I was on 
the water were consumed in making the journey. 

The " Upper Camp," as it is called, was not hap- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 145 

pily chosen It is pitched on a sandy promontory, 
closely enveloped on three sides by a dense jungle, 
from which a nervous sojourner might expect at 
any hour of the night a bear, wild-cat or moose to 
emerge. But it affords a perfect shelter from the 
winds, which often sweep down through the gor- 
ges of the mountains with fearful furv. It did so 
elsewhere on the river during my first night alone. 
At the main camp, the tornado was so severe that 
tents and shanties were in danger, and were only 
saved from demolition with the greatest difficulty ; 
and it was as cold as it was tempestuous. But in 
my sheltered nook all was as quiet as if but a 
zephyr, instead of old Boreas, was dallying with 
the green leaves above me, and I sat in solitary 
state before my camp-fire in summer garments, 
while my friends ten miles off were pitying me 
for the discomforts I must be experiencing in my 
unsheltered cabin ! So it is. Half the sympathy 
we expend upon others is wasted, either because 
the ills feared do not come to them, or because 
" the darkest cloud always has its silver lining." 

These two days of isolation passed away very 
pleasantly. The weather was superb, the scenery 
magnificent and the sport all that I could desire. 
Only a single incident occurred worth special men- 
tion. In slowly drifting through an unpropitious 
looking pool, I made a cast or two at a venture, 
19 



146 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

and unexpectedly hooked a fish of some twelve or 
fifteen ponnds. As the canoe was moving when 
he rose, I struck him awkwardly, but he was fairly 
hooked. He showed his metal from the start. His 
first run nearly emptied my reel, and for half an 
hour he engaged in more curious pranks than any 
fish I had ever encountered. He literally " boxed 
the compass," and by his eccentric movements kept 
the canoe and myself in a perpetual whirl. I never 
had hold of a fish which seemed more determined 
to escape. The only possible way to prevent the 
line from running out was to follow him up, which 
we did, of course; but this required incessant 
" reeling in " — an exhausting piece of work, which 
becomes rather monotonous after a while. Tired 
and a little nervous, with the canoe and fish in con- 
stant motion, I was not prepared for the series of 
leaps which followed in such rapid succession as to 
be quite bewildering. One of these was of such 
unusual height that I was startled and neglected 
to lower my rod at the right moment. As a result 
he tore off ! He had earned his liberty ; and it 
seemed so impossible to master him that I scarcely 
regretted his escape. 

I have, I believe, in a former chapter said some- 
thing about the difficulty of acquiring the art ne- 
cessary to save a leaping fish. There is seldom 
any danger in the ascent, because the line is then 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 147 

loosened and the expert angler instinctively recov- 
ers any slack that may result from this movement, 
so that by the time the fish is ready to descend, the 
line is taut ; and unless this descent is followed by 
a simultaneous dropping of the tip of the rod, such 
a, sudden strain on the line will ensue as to inevit- 
ably either break something or tear out the hook. 
The latter mishap was what befell me on this occa- 
sion. The hook had caught in some tender place 
in the mouth of the fish, strong enough to resist 
any ordinary strain but not strong enough to re- 
sist the pressure of a iive or six feet plunge. No 
fish ever afterward leaped with my fly that my rod 
did not, in response, bow as promptly and as grace- 
fully as the exigencies of the occasion required. 
ISTo lesson is harder to learn, because nothing in all 
the angler's experience is so exciting as the spiteful 
leaps of a hooked salmon. 

So, with the dashing rapids sparkling in the 
sun, with the balmy atmosphere redolent with the 
aroma of a thousand flowers, with the mountains 
casting their giant shadows upon the ever-changing 
landscape, with ten thousand birds warbling their 
grateful anthems, with no fretting cares or bab- 
bling intruders to jar upon the harmony of the 
scene, my ten-mile ride home was inexpressibly 
exhilarating. I can hope to experience no more 
ecstatic emotions until I stand upon the banks of 



148 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

that " pure river of water of life, clear as crystal," 
which sparkles in the sunlight of an eternal day. 

While I had been thus reveling in solitude and 
enjoying myself to the "top of my bent," Dun 
and the Judge were rendered equally happy by the 
magnificent sport they had had in my absence. 
Each recounted his successes and mishaps before a 
rousing camp-fire, and the night was far advanced 
before the Judge wearied of describing, in his own 
inimitable way, the unpurchasable felicities avail- 
able to a true angler on the banks of the "fair 
Cascapedia." 

A day or two before my solitary ramble, an acci- 
dent occurred on the river which might have re- 
sulted seriously, but which simply inconvenienced 
the gentlemen who were the unfortunate victims 
of it. I have before alluded to Mr. Kinnear, 
of St. John, a veteran angler, and Capt. Grant, 
of England, accomplished in all the mysteries of 
the art, who accompanied our party to the river, 
and who proceeded to the upper pools, thirty miles 
distant, to fish. They had with them most of their 
supplies for a fortnight, and their canoes were ne- 
cessarily heavily laden. They had ascended several 
of the worst rapids in safety, and their Indian 
guides (two of whom had never before been on 
the river) had become less watchful than is essen- 
tial to safety in these turbulent waters. The for- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 149 

ward canoe, which was in charge of the two stran- 
gers, was being pushed up a very strong rapid, 
over one side of which a fallen tree projected. 
For a moment the canoe swerved from a direct 
course, was instantly driven backward with the 
speed of an arrow against this fallen tree, and went 
over like a flash, precipitating Mr. Kinnear, his 
guides and all the luggage into the rushing waters. 
When Mr. K. came up (for at that particular spot 
the water is very deep) he found himself under the 
canoe, wedged in amongst the luggage ; but he 
had the presence of mind to dive, and so extrica- 
ted himself in time to prevent strangulation. It 
was a narrow escape, for which he was duly grate- 
ful. The occupants of the other canoes came to 
the rescue at the foot of the rapids where the water 
was not so deep, and succeeded in catching most 
of the luggage as it floated past. The canoe itself 
was badly broken, and it took two or three days to 
repair damages and to dry the saturated garments 
of the party. We had a visit from the captain, 
attired in Mr. Ktnnear's breeches ; and as Mr. K. 
weighs two hundred and twenty, and Captain 
Grant one hundred and fifty, the captain looked 
far less jaunty than when on parade with his crack 
regiment at home. But he enjoyed the mishap as 
an incident in his visit to the river. 

Captain Grant is a fine representative of the 
enthusiastic anglers of the old world. He has 



150 PLEASURES OF ANGLLNG-. 

been a salmon fisher from his youth up, having 
taken his first lessons in Scottish waters so soon as 
he had acquired the muscle to make a cast. The 
passion had strengthened with his strength, and 
he had had the opportunity to gratify his tastes in 
all the most famous rivers in the four quarters of 
the globe. But in all his wanderings he found no 
waters so attractive as these. Whether in the East 
or West Indies — whether on the Tweed or Shan- 
non — whether " at home " or in the jungles — 
his recollection of these salmon rivers was an ever- 
present and an ever- pleasant memory — the subject 
of his discourse by day and of his dreams in the 
night watches. And as proof of his enthusiasm 
he had twice crossed the Atlantic for no other pur- 
pose than to fish for salmon. The present season 
he took the steamer at Liverpool, landed at Farther 
Point, spent a month on the Eestigouche and the 
Cascapedia, returned directly to Farther Point, and 
from thence home — only too happy to make a 
journey of six thousand miles to cast his fly in 
these magnificent salmon waters. Nor is his an 
isolated case. Many another of like tastes, and 
with a like appreciation of the kingly sport, every 
year make the same journey. All of these " sim- 
ple wise men " may not be " princes in the king's 
household," but not one of them would assume 
the dignity of royalty itself if it involved the sur- 
render of their prerogative at will to " go a-fishing." 



CHAPTEK XX. 



A SHOUT ESSAY ON FLY CASTING. 

But, Johnnie, I maun, as ye'r frien', warn ye that it's no' the 
fly, nor the water, nor the rod, nor the win', nor the licht, can 
dae the job, wi'oot the watchfu' e'e and steady han', and a 
feeling for the business that's kin' o' born wi' a fisher, but 
hoo that comes aboot I dinna ken. — [Donald Macleod, D. D. 




KDINABILY the waters of these 
salmon rivers are so transparent 
that in still pools long casts are 
indispensable to success. I make 
this qualification because great 
length of line is not so necessary 
in pools whose surface is broken 
by the current ripples, which 
serve the same purpose in a sal- 
mon pool that a sharp breeze 
does on trout waters — they blur the vision of the 
fish and render a more near approach feasible. But 
I never cast in either without parodying Napoleon's 
maxim : " Providence is on the side of the heaviest 
battalions : " success is on the side of the longest 
casts. I remember very well where I first learned 
this lesson. Many years ago, long before the North 
Woods became the fashionable resort of mere plea- 



152 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

sure seekers, and while anglers still held the undis- 
puted monopoly of their crystal waters, " Cole's 
Point, 1 ' at the foot of Big Tupper, was one of my 
favorite resorts. Cast when I would, at early morn- 
ing, at midday or in the gloaming, I was always 
sure of good sport. I would begin with a short 
cast, standing well back and dropping my fly at the 
very edge of the point around which the current, 
in those days, flowed with a graceful undulating 
motion over a cluster of bowlders where trout loved 
to congregate. For a few minutes I was kept busy, 
but the responses speedily ceased. By projecting 
my fly a few feet farther out, like results would 
follow ; and so on until I had swept the entire 
length and breadth of the pool. Full half my take 
was from long casts. Why ? E"ot because I had 
taken all the fish that were within easy reach when 
I began to cast, but because those I did not take, 
alarmed either by the shadow of my rod or the 
strugglings of the fish I hooked, slowly retreated, 
not really frightened, perhaps, but disturbed, — 
halting after a dart or two, to become themselves 
the victims of their ravenous appetite. If I had 
not followed them as they retired, I would not now 
have such pleasant recollections of " Cole's Point" 
as it was twenty years ago, before the dam at Set- 
ting Pole rapids had changed the whole surface of 
the Raquette waters below the Raquette falls. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 153 

As it is with trout so is it with salmon. "When 
they are alarmed by the approach of your canoe, 
the glint of yonr paddle or the shadow of your rod, 
they do not rush from the pool, but they do what 
the leopard cannot do — they change their spots, 
retiring it may be fifty, eighty or a hundred feet 
from where your are anchored. If then you have 
the skill to reach them, you have a great advantage 
over those who have but half your skill. Hence 
my theory that success is always with the angler 
who makes the longest casts. 

I once saw this very strikingly illustrated in a 
broad pool in which two friends were fishing at the 
same time. They were anchored on either side, 
and there was " ample space and verge enough " 
for both. But one could never get out more than 
sixty feet of line, while eighty or ninety feet was 
an easy cast for the other. With this exception, 
both were equally expert, equally enthusiastic and 
equally familiar with the habits and dainty tastes 
of their coveted prey. But the long cast scored 
two to his neighbor's one, because he had practically 
two-thirds of the pool. It is always thus, and hence 
every angler either for trout or salmon, should, if 
possible, acquire the art of giving his line a long- 
sweep. 

But some never acquire this art. Most novices 
start out with the idea that it simply requires the 

20 



154 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

exercise of great muscular exertion to get out a long 
line. They lift their eight or ten ounce trout-rod 
as if they were lifting a sledge-hammer, and push 
it out with as much force as they would use to 
render the blow of a beetle effective. But no long 
cast was ever secured in that way. A quick but 
gentle movement, requiring scarcely more muscular 
exertion than the natural sw T ing of the arm, is all 
that is necessary, taking care, however, that the 
line extends its full length backward before you 
force it to its forward movement. This is the sim- 
ple single rule, by adhering to which, after reason- 
able practice, any one may make as long casts as 
are ever profitable. The same rule holds good in 
wielding the heavy double-handed salmon-rod, 
except that its greater weight requires greater exer- 
tion. But even here, length of line follows regu- 
larity of movement rather than muscular force, 
and yet without springy and well-balanced rods 
neither skill nor muscle will be of any avail. It is 
easier for me to cast eighty feet with one of my 
salmon-rods than fifty feet with another. In the 
one, every fibre, from tip to reel, seems instinct 
with life, while the other is as rigid and irrespon- 
sive as a hoop-pole. But, given a good rod and 
ordinarily skillful manipulation, no angler is excus- 
able who cannot easily cast his trout-line sixty and 
his salmon-line ninety feet, where there are no 
obstructions within the radius of the cast. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLESTG. 155 

No two anglers ever cast exactly alike. One gets 
out his eighty feet of line by a perfectly straight 
backward and forward movement of his rod. This 
is the most natural movement, the most simple, and 
generally the most effective. But in this move- 
ment, without a slight deviation from a straight 
line somewhere, there is always danger that your 
line or leader may, at some point in their journey, 
overlap. This danger is always imminent with a 
brisk breeze at your back. I do not, of course, 
invariably adhere to this movement,— never when 
the necessities of the case require a side cast ; but 
where no material divergence from a straight line 
is necessary, I find it the most effective. Others 
give the rod its backward movement over the left 
shoulder and its forward movement over the right, 
or vice versa. This gives the line a graceful sweep 
which is not only artistic but avoids the danger of 
lapping. To make an equally long cast with this 
movement, however, requires greater skill than 
with the other ; for, without the very nicest appre- 
ciation of time and distance, the curved sweep of 
the line will prevent it from acquiring the direct 
position indispensable to a perfect forward projec- 
tion. But those who adopt this movement gene- 
rally know what they are about. Indeed, the very 
best anglers of my acquaintance (notably Gen. 
Arthur) practice it altogether. Others invariably 



156 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

make the side or under cast, seldom lifting their 
rod above their shoulder. There are supposed ad- 
vantages in such a movement, but I have never 
been able to discover them. One must have a large 
space of clear water to escape such entanglements 
with brush or tree-tops as no angler covets. Of 
course, there are times when this movement is 
necessary to enable one to reach desirable objective 
points, but it is not a movement to " tie to." Others 
still have no fixed mode of casting. It is their boast 
that they are equally expert in all. As a rule, how- 
ever, you will find that in angling as in everything 
else, those who are " equally expert in all " rarely 
excel in any. 

In casting, attitude may not be everything, but 
it is a great deal. And what a multitude of atti- 
tudes anglers assume ! Some stand as erect as pil- 
lars, swaying neither to the right nor to the left, 
whatever reach of line they covet. Some sway to 
and fro, with every movement of their rod, like a 
tall pine in a tempest. Others throw themselves 
forward as if ambitious to follow their fly in person ; 
while now and then one casts with an ease and 
grace of attitude and movement which would excite 
the envy and admiration of an athlete or sculptor. 
As I write, the recollection of one such comes back 
to me very pleasantly. He was an Adonis in form 
and physique, and his casting was the perfect 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 157 

" poetry of motion." Although like many of his 
contemporaries, his frosted locks and furrowed 
cheeks give token of advancing years, he still finds 
pleasure in the attractive pastime of angling. You 
have but to say to him, as Peter said to his discon- 
solate brethren, " I go a-fishing," to secure from 
him their response, " I go also." 

But however one casts, it is impossible always to 
distinguish between the strike of a trout and that 
of a salmon ; and as both are often found in the 
same pool, the angler is frequently annoyed by a 
call from the one when he is only eager to pay his 
respects to the other. The most experienced are 
often deceived, and they sometimes only discover 
their mistake after many minutes of exciting play. 
A four or five-pound trout (and trout of these 
weights are very common in these waters) can no 
more be hurried home than a twenty-pound salmon. 
The rod will only bear a certain pressure, and for 
a little while a five-pound trout reaches this point 
as unmistakably as the larger fish. 

It was not until several days after it happened 
that Judge Fulleeton had the courage to relate an 
incident in his experience which goes to show how 
even a very wise man and a very expert angler 
may be deceived. He had been casting for some 
time without success, and was becoming impatient, 
when his fly was taken by a fish which ran oil with 



158 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

Ids line as savagely as a forty-pound salmon would 
have done. The strike was magnificent, and the 
rush and resistance gave promise of a long fight. 
It was quite in vain that he tried to reel him in. 
The fish fought like a tiger, and not only compelled 
the Judge to frequently give him line, but rendered 
it necessary to follow him up to save the threatened 
tackling. So, through the pool he went on a run, 
then over the rapids with a rush, and down the 
swift water for half a mile, like a race-horse. His 
headlong movements were simply irresistible, and 
there was nothing for it but to follow his lead. So, 
the canoe and the fish dashed on together, the 
Judge in an ecstacy of delight with the magnificent 
play the gallant fellow was giving him. In the 
height of the battle, angler and gaffer pronounced 
him a twenty-pounder at least, and would have 
scorned to take off a single ounce from their esti- 
mate. And so the struggle continued for half an 
hour, hot and heavy, the Judge all aglow with per- 
spiration and excitement, when the fish was brought 
to gaff, and came up a Jive-pou?id trout instead of 
a twenty-pound salmon! But "mum was the 
word ! " and the gaffer was faithful to his promise. 
He gave no sign ; and it was not until some others 
of us had related similar experiences that the Judge 
revealed this adventure with an imaginary twenty- 
pound salmon which turned out to be simply a five- 
pound trout. 



CHAPTEK XXI. 

A FOREST PICTURE AN UPSET IN " LAZY BOGAN." 

There is, I think, a love of novelty in all anglers. We pre- 
fer to fish new waters when we can, and it is sometimes 
pleasanter to explore, even without success, than to take fish 
in familiar places. New and fine scenery is always worth 
finding. — \W. C. Prime. 



HERE are a few pools on this river 
as on others, where an occasional 
salmon can be taken at any time 
from the first of June to the close 
of the season. Among these is 
the " Sheclden pool," which is 
known as one of the very best 
between tide- water and the Forks. 
But after the middle of July, it is 
too near the sea to afford as rich 
returns as some others twenty or thirty miles 
farther up. It is salmon nature when started on 
their annual pilgrimage, to keep moving until 
they reach their maternal destination. On this 
river their chief spawning-places are from fifty 
to seventy miles from tide-water. But there are 
pools where they like to tarry on their journey ; 
and we found none more generally thus honored 




160 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

than the pool referred to. Others might be 
"whipped" in vain, but this seldom failed to 
reward the patient angler, no matter when or how 
often it was visited. A monopoly of it for the 
season would afford any reasonable fisherman all 
the sport and pleasure he could desire, if he had 
no other object in visiting these waters than to 
fish. But they greatly mistake the temper and 
tastes of the true angler who assume that he is 
attracted to these quiet places simply to kill and to 
destroy. To have the opportunity to fish consti- 
tutes but one of the threads in the golden cord 
which draws him to the grand old forests in whose 
mountain streams trout and salmon " most do con- 
gregate." If he finds pleasure in the rise and 
strike and struggle of a mammoth fish, so also is 
he lifted up out of the rut of common-place emo- 
tions by his majestic surroundings — by the ever- 
shifting shadows on the mountain ; by the inces- 
sant music of the birds ; by the never-ending mel- 
ody of the singing waters ; by the splash and foam 
and sparkle of the leaping cascade ; by the glint- 
ing sun-light upon ripple and rapid ; by the shad- 
owy depths of the impenetrable forest ; by jagged 
rock and giant bowlder and dark pool and gliding 
river, and a thousand other " things of beauty " 
which remain upon the canvas of his memory 
long after the minor incidents of fish- taking are for- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 161 

gotten. No ; it is not all of fishing to fish. That 
is but an incident in the angler's pleasant pastime. 
They have other and higher, if not more invigora- 
ting and exhilarating tastes to gratify. This beau- 
tiful picture of the poet is as often in their mind's 
eye as the rush and leap of the silver salmon : 

The trees are bursting into bud and bloom ; 

The hills lie blue beneath a sapphire sky; 
The birds breathe music, and the flowers perfume ; 

The pools lie placid as a maiden's eye. 

I am sure that no one of our party would be 
content to visit any salmon river if they were 
restricted to such narrow limits as would afford 
them no variety in landscape, and no range for 
adventure. Quite as much pleasure is derived from 
experimenting in untried waters and in hunting 
up new bits of scenery, as in running up a great 
" score " to excite the admiration of partial friends 
or kindle the ire of envious rivals. 

As the summer tourist often finds the most 
charming nooks by diverging from the beaten path, 
so does the angler often find the most attractive 
scenery by following up some half-hidden brook or 
rivulet which empties its crystal waters into the 
more majestic river which bears them to the sea. 
I had often fished the " Escumenack pool," which 
lies at the mouth of the river of that name, and 
had as often resolved to explore its hidden chan- 

21 



162 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

nel through the massive mountains amid which it 
has its source. So, one sunny afternoon my canoe 
was headed thitherward with as keen a relish for 
discovery as ever Columbus experienced while 
wearily waiting for royalty to launch him out upon 
unknown seas. And I had my reward in such a 
revelation of beauty as seldom comes to mortal 
vision. When we had pushed oui way through 
some half mile of very swift water, we dropped 
into a natural basin of solid rock, whose picturesque 
surroundings constituted a fitting frame-work for 
the most charming and peaceful picture I ever saw. 
The water was from twenty to fifty feet deep, yet 
so transparent that the tiniest pebble was as clearly 
visible at the greatest depth as if held in the naked 
hand. What a pool for trout in their season ! 
Now, however, not a fish revealed himself. I made 
a few casts, but without discovering any sign of 
life until my fly reached the rim. of the basin, sixty 
feet distant, and then I only "flushed" a large 
trout, who refused my lure and moved off a few 
feet, as if disturbed by the unexpected apparition. 
But the water was so clear that I saw his every 
movement as he lay in seeming dread of what 
might befall him. In all my travels I never met 
with any water so perfectly transparent, or in 
which a minute object could be seen at so great a 
depth. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 163 

A few rods further brought us to the foot of the 
falls — a triplet of terraced cascades, combining as 
many points of beauty as Trenton, with more pic- 
turesque surroundings and as much to captivate 
the artist and excite the admiration of the appre- 
ciative lover of nature. They are seldom visited, 
even by anglers, because they are but little talked 
of. My Indian guide knew of them, but seemed 
to have no thought that any one would care to see 
them ; and it was not until I announced my pur- 
pose to start out on a tour of observation that he 
informed me that I would find something that 
would reward me for my trouble. Hereafter, so 
long as I shall be permitted to fish in these waters, 
I will be sure to pay these falls a visit. 

Similar bits of scenery are scattered all over this 
vast wilderness of forest, river and mountain. All 
the rivers have their sources hundreds of feet above 
the sea. The descent is not always made by a suc- 
cession of rapids. At some points in most of them 
there are falls of no mean altitude, beyond which 
no salmon can ascend, and at the foot of which, 
in the season, they gather in fabulous numbers. 
There is such a gathering place on this river, sev- 
enty miles from the sea. We were within twenty 
miles of it, but such fearful stories were told us of 
the difficulty of making the ascent — of foaming 
rapids and jagged rocks, and probable shipwreck — 



1G4 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

that we consoled ourselves with the reflection that 
it " wouldn't pay," the more particularly as our 
own knowledge of the river convinced us that the 
trip was only practicable during a higher stage of 
water than prevailed while we were in camp at the 
Forks. But I hope, before Providence shall shut 
me off from the Cascapedia, to behold the wonders 
which may be seen at this famous " summer re- 
sort " of the aristocracy of the sea. 

In a recent letter I had occasion to mention a 
mishap which befell Mr. Kinnear and Capt. 
Grant. A similar incident occurred to Gen. Ar- 
thur soon after. He had been fishing "Lazy 
Bogan" — a famous pool in the vicinity of our 
camp — with indifferent success, when he deemed 
it advisable to change his base. To do so it was 
necessary to cross the stream at right angles with 
the current. Ordinarily this could have been done 
with safety, but unfortunately the General, with 
an eye to comfort, had placed a chair in his canoe, 
and in crossing, the frail craft careened under the 
pressure of the swift water, and this caused the 
chair to tilt and brought the General's two hun- 
dred pounds " avoir-du-pois " to such an angle as to 
cause the canoe to roll over "quicker than you 
could say Jack Robinson." The General, always 
submissive to constituted authority, promptly 
obeyed the law of gravitation, and was instantly 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 165 

submerged. But beiug a good swimmer, instead 
of ignominiously beating a retreat for the shore, 
he made for the canoe to prevent it, if possible, 
from passing down the rapids, to be there wrecked 
upon the rocks. But " Lo, the poor Indian," hav- 
ing either less courage or more discretion, made 
for terra firma with masterly " neatness and dis- 
patch." And, as the sequel proved, it was well 
that he did, for as he was stoically watching the 
canoe and its submerged but self-possessed navi- 
gator, he saw the General's pocket-book gracefully 
floating down stream, and succeeded in clutching 
it. The fact that it was so light that it floated 
should be universally received as conclusive of its 
owner's official integrity. Indeed, but for this 
incidental evidence of his "honest poverty," it 
may be questioned whether he would have received 
the high honor of a unanimous vote on the ques- 
tion of his confirmation, for a second term, as Col- 
lector of the Port of "New York. !No other mis- 
chief resulted from this mishap than a thorough 
ducking, except that the General's watch stopped 
at the moment of the disaster, which was precisely 
eight minutes to seven, on one of the loveliest 
evenings of the year. 

Something which might have been more serious 
occurred to myself while passing down one of the 
most impetuous rapids on the river. My Indian 



166 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

guide was in the bow of the canoe. He saw a 
dangerous rock ahead, and gave proper directions 
to the man in the stern, but his directions were 
misapprehended. The result was that while the 
one was trying to keep the canoe on the shore side 
of the rock, the other was doing his best to keep 
the rock on the shore side of the canoe. In this 
conflict of muscle the frail craft was rushing head- 
on to the rock at a speed of at least twenty miles 
an hour. The Indian saw the peril, and with a 
sweep of his paddle into which he seemingly put 
the strength of ten men, he succeeded in swinging 
the canoe inward, so that the bow just grazed the 
bowlder, while its bulging side came against it with 
a thud which, but for the elastic character of the 
birch bark of which it was constructed, would have 
smashed it into a thousand pieces. It was an 
anxious moment, for the water rushed downward 
amid a hundred other rocks with such force that 
only an expert swimmer could have got through 
in safety. The Indian was evidently in a white 
heat with rage, and so, from the fact that I never 
before heard him use an improper word, I hadn't 
the heart to chide him when he said : " Albert, 
don't you be damn fool any more ! " And he 
wasn't. We shot through scores of rapids after- 
ward (including the Indian Falls, the worst that I 
ever saw a canoe pass through and live) without a 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 167 

scratch. Nothing is more exciting, because noth- 
ing sane men ever attempt is more full of peril. 
If the king who offered a thousand pounds for a 
new sensation could have been induced to shoot 
one of these Cascapedia rapids, he would have had 
what he coveted. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

GOING UP THE RIVER A THUNDER STORM OUR 

CHAMPION MATCH-LIGHTER EARLY 

MORNING FISHING. 

Sir, you have angled me on with much pleasure to the 
Thatched House ; and I now find your words true, that " good 
company makes the way short ;" for, trust me, sir, I thought 
we had wanted three miles of this house, till you showed it to 
me. But now we are at it, we'll turn into it, and refresh our- 
selves with a cup of drink, and a little rest. — [Sir Izaak Wal- 
ton. 




T was a beautiful summer morning 
when we broke camp at the 
"Shedden Pool'' to visit The 
Forks, thirty miles distant. The 
change required the transporta- 
tion of all onr stores and camp 
equipage — ample lading for two 
baggage canoes, besides what 
could be carried in those occu- 
pied by the fishermen themselves. 
Our fleet of six boats "moved off in gallant style." 
Each canoe was propelled by two guides, and as 
they glided forward in " Indian file," to the steady 
music of their iron -tipped setting poles, the sight 
was quite inspiriting and picturesque. The ascent 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 169 

of the rapids was abundantly exciting, not only 
because great muscular exertion and skill were 
necessary on the part of the guides, but because it 
was often a matter of grave doubt whether the 
ascent could possibly be made. In the event of a 
failure, either from the force of the current or 
because of the divergence of the canoe from the 
proper line, nothing could prevent the frail craft 
from being hurled backward amid the huge bowl- 
ders which render the ascent or descent of the 
rapids always perilous. Accidents from either of 
these causes seldom happen ; but there are occa- 
sional compulsory retreats and unpleasant upsets 
caused by the breakage or loss of setting poles or 
paddles at the most critical moment. 

Upon one occasion my canoe had just surmounted 
a dangerous fall and was moving along in seeming 
security against the swift water a few rods above 
the crest of the rapids, when the setting poles of 
both my guides were caught in the clefts of the 
hidden rocks and snatched from their hands. The 
canoe was thus left to the mercy of the current. An 
upset seemed inevitable, and I instinctively began 
to disencumber myself for a cold bath. But in an 
instant both guides seized their paddles, and by 
almost superhuman exertions held their boat in 
proper line until it fell back upon the canoe in the 
rear, whose guides had caught up the floating set- 
22 



170 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

ting poles and restored them to their owners. In 
the two minutes all this occupied there was concen- 
trated as much excitement as one ordinarily expe- 
riences in a twelvemonth of quiet life. When, 
under the assurance of safety, the reaction came, I 
found myself as tremulous as if I had been wrest- 
ling with an athlete. 

Our first ten miles were passed without any other 
adventure. But we were doomed to encounter one 
of those terrific thunder storms which are only met 
with in their grand and magnificent proportions in 
mountainous regions. It burst upon us with start- 
ling abruptness. The bright shining sun was sud- 
denly obscured by heavy gray clouds, which came 
flying and rolling toward us as if propelled by a 
thousand tornadoes. These were followed by a 
troop of dense clouds black as night, from amid 
which there sounded out such peals of thunder as 
shook the huge mountains to their very founda- 
tions, and such incessant, sharp, quick lightning- 
flashes as " struck terror to the soul" of the most 
intrepid among us. The whole heavens were ablaze, 
and the almost midnight darkness which had thus 
unexpectedly fallen upon us was lit up as if by a 
limitless conflagration. And then were opened 
upon us the flood-gates of the skies, and we " took 
to the woods." The grouping of the drenched 
crowd as they sought shelter from the liquid ava- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 171 

lanche was sufficiently ludicrous to excite boisterous 
merriment in spite of the bellowing thunder and 
the dazzling lightning, which rendered the roar and 
flash of ten thousand cannon the mere crackling of 
baby torpedoes. It was a grandly terrific spectacle, 
which amply compensated us for the delay and 
drenching which it brought to us. 

We had hoped to make at least half our journey 
of thirty miles before night-fall. But the storm 
thwarted us, and the General cried " halt " when 
the twelve-mile land-mark was reached. 

To those fond of it, camp-life, at its worst, has 
but few discomforts ; but among these few none 
are more unpleasant than dripping leaves and sat- 
urated surroundings. After such a storm every- 
thing you touch is wet. The first thing coveted is, 
of course, a fire. But to find available material 
requires time and patient searching. And when 
found, where is the dry spot upon which to ignite 
a lucif er ? In our party we had an expert to whom 
wind and weather had always hitherto presented 
no obstacle to the delicate manipulation required. 
Under the most adverse circumstances, it seemed 
only necessary for him to strike a well-defined atti- 
tude to secure the desired result. But upon this 
occasion the magic seat of his power had so gathered 
dampness that he scratched in vain, scratched he 
never so deftlv ; and when he found himself no 



172 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

longer " master of the situation," he was as indig- 
nant as was Balaam when his poor beast refused to 
do his bidding. 

But the perplexities of fire-kindling in the woods 
after a rain storm, like other human ills, always 
have an ending. Yery soon a glowing log-heap 
rendered our selected camping ground home-like 
and comfortable. The tents were pitched, the sur- 
roundings were speedily brought into ship-shape, 
a bountiful supper was prepared and eaten with a 
relish, the moon and the stars shone out resplen- 
dently, and after two or three hours of mingled 
sedate and merry conversation, stillness reigned 
supreme over the camp of a quartette of weary but 
happy anglers. 

The morning after the tempest was all that heart 
could wish. The huge fire built in the centre of 
the camp had been kept in full blaze during the 
night, and dispersed every vestige of moisture 
within camp range long before any one not obliged 
to be moving cared to leave his comfortable couch. 
We had grown into the habit of taking things lei- 
surely and were unwilling to break over a very 
pleasant custom simply because, by being tardy, 
we might fail to reach our destination before night- 
fall. I know that those who act upon the " early 
bird" theory may deem this confession deroga- 
tory to the character of zealous anglers. But I long 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 173 

ago abandoned the habit of fishing before break- 
fast, under the fallacious idea that neither trout nor 
salmon are ever so voracious as during the very 
early hours of the very early morning. A trout 
or salmon pool will yield just as handsome returns 
between the hours of eight and ten as between 
the hours of five and seven, if it remains undis- 
turbed. A great many experts will probably dis- 
pute this statement ; but if they will experiment 
as long and as faithfully as I have, they will agree 
with me, and by acting upon the discovery they 
will find themselves happier if not better men by 
contentedly enjoying their morning rest rather 
than encountering the raw morning air in their 
haste to secure the fish which would just as will- 
ingly and as surely come to them after breakfast. 
In making the twenty odd miles which inter- 
vened between our extemporised camp and " The 
Forks," we encountered at least a dozen rapids 
which it seemed impossible that our canoemen 
could surmount. North Woods guides, with all 
their skill and intrepidity, would deem it absolutely 
necessary to " carry round " these formidable ob- 
stacles. And, with their boats, they would be 
obliged to do so. But these bark canoes seem just 
adapted to overcome these tumultuous waters. It 
is hard work, and requires a quick eye, a steady 
hand, a firm foot, and a wonderfully nice appre- 



174 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

ciation of the flow and force of the currents ; but 
nothing seems so difficult as the exact balance 
they preserve during these great muscular exer- 
tions. They constantly change their setting poles 
from side to side and half face about with every 
change ; but in doing so they preserve a perfect 
poise, not casting an ounce of improper weight 
upon either side while making these rapid changes. 
A novice, whatever props he might call to his 
aid, would find it impossible to maintain his 
equilibrium while passing either up or down these 
boiling cauldrons. But to lose his balance is the 
last thing to be apprehended from an expert canoe- 
man. He has this art perfectly — acquired by long 
years of constant practice. 

Indian Falls is by far the most threatening rapid 
on the river, and is the only one where anglers 
are expected to disembark in ascending. The 
canoes, however, are always polled up and it is 
very seldom that any accident happens. The des- 
cent is even more difficult, and prudent voyageurs 
take to terra firma rather than run the gauntlet of 
the numerous bowlders which dot the channel 
from summit to base. Only one of our party, how- 
ever, had the good sense to " take to the woods " 
for half a mile rather than run the risk of a cold 
bath or something worse, by rushing down the 
fearfully turbulent waterway. It so happened 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 175 

that no harm befell his companions ; but m making 
the detour he failed to share in the most exciting 
incident of the excursion. I have often passed the 
famous rapids of the St. Lawrence. That is an 
incident to be remembered and talked about for a 
life-time. But that passage is monotonous com- 
pared with shooting the rapids of Indian Falls in 
a bark canoe. 

The river between the Falls and the Forks — 
nine miles — is comparatively still water, the cur- 
rent not averaging more than five or six miles an 
hour. The sail is delightful, and we enjoyed it to 
the full, reaching our destination just at night- 
fall. But it was midnight before any one was 
disposed to withdraw himself from the camp-fire, 
whose ruddy glow gave piquancy and breadth to 
the ceaseless flow of wit and wisdom which found 
ready utterance during these always pleasant even- 
ing hours on the banks of the " fair Cascapedia," 
the melody of whose singing waters never failed 
to quickly woo us to refreshing slumbers. 



CHAPTEK XXIII. 



GRAND SPORT AT THE FORKS LEAPING SALMON 

TORCH-LIGHT SURVEY OF THE POOLS. 

And yf it fortune you to fmyt a gret fyfh with a fmall har- 
nays thenne ye muft lede hym in the water and labour hym 
there tyll he be drounyd and overcome. Thenne take hym 
as well as ye can or maye, and euer be waar that ye holde 
not ouer the frengthe of your lyne, and as moche as ye may, 
lete hym not come out of your lyne's ende ftreyghte from 
you : but kepe hym euer vnder the rodde and euermore hold 
hym ftreyghte : foo that your lyne may be fufteyne, and beere 
his lepys and his plungys wyth the helpe of your cropp, and 
of your honde. — \_Treatyfe of ' Fy/JJiynge wyth an Angle, 1496. 

The clouds are silver in an azure sky ; 

The hills lie basking in a sunny dream ; 
The lapping water coolly gurgles by 

Where lies the fallen trunk athwart the stream. 




E first visited these upper waters of 
the Cascapedia last season. Our 
camp is fifty miles from the sea, 
and is "beautiful for situation." 
The spot chosen is a sort of pen- 
insula, furnishing a fine view of 
the river and of the highest of 
the surrounding mountains. Our 
tents are pitched in the midst of 
a grove of young pines, whose 
shade is ample at all hours. The summer breeze 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 177 

has an unobstructed sweep from three directions, 
and nothing is lacking in tent, or larder to render 
our temporary resting place an angler's elysium. 

The early hours of our first day were full of 
forest music. An occasional bird whistled out his 
morning orisons. The murmur of the running 
water was pleasant to the ear, and the splash of 
the leaping salmon could be heard distinctly above 
the monotonous sough of the pines as they were 
waved to and fro by the balmy breath of the 
cloudless morning. What we knew of these pools 
rendered us impatient to test them, and much ear- 
lier than usual we were busy adjusting our rods 
and reels for the fray. To the curiosity which 
always accompanies the opportunity to cast in new 
waters was superadded the excitement caused by 
the salmon quadrille in full play within short pis- 
tol range of the camp. Every leap seemed a chal- 
lenge, and gave promise of grander sport than we 
had yet experienced. 

There was a good pool for each of us, and each 
proceeded in his own way to make the best use of 
his rare opportunity. The General had the first 
rise. All the signs indicated that he was fast to a 
fish of unusual weight. The initiatory rush and 
leap were prodigious, taking out nearly everj foot 
of line and compelling a rapid forward movement 

23 



178 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

of the canoe to prevent mischief. In a few mo- 
ments the General was able to step out upon the 
pebbly beach, where he fancied he could the more 
successfully curb and capture his prey. For a 
while it looked as if he was about to demonstrate 
the soundness of his theory that a salmon fisher 
should always take to the beach where practicable, 
as soon as possible after he has hooked his fish. 
The tussle was severe and protracted. The fish 
was a stubborn brute, always doing just the very 
thing it was hoped he would not do — rushing and 
leaping and sulking in such eccentric and perverse 
ways as to keep his captor moving backward and 
forward like a wearied sentinel at his post. If the 
fish continued to thus turn upon his own tracks 
long enough, his capture, sooner or later, would be 
reasonably sure. But nothing is more uncertain 
than the movements of a hooked salmon, and those 
of us who had ceased fishing to witness the battle 
were not surprised when this lusty rascal made a 
dash down stream which soon brought the General 
to the end of his walk, and compelled him to take 
to his canoe to prevent the fish from making his 
escape ; for you might as well try to hold a two-year 
old colt with a cotton thread as a rushing thirty- 
pound salmon by a direct pull on an exhausted line. 
It is for this reason that I always stick to my canoe 
during such a contest. You are better able to fol- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 179 

low where your fish leads. It would of course be 
different if wading were possible, but the water 
is generally too deep for that sort of fishing — alto- 
gether the most artistic and fascinating where 
practicable. As the General could not wade, he 
was forced to take to his canoe, which he did with 
great promptness and dexterity, but not an instant 
too soon. A delay of the twentieth part of a min- 
ute would have left him fishless and mortified. 
When thus again master of the situation, the con- 
test was resumed by both parties with great vigor. 
No angler since the days of Nimrod ever played a 
fish more skillfully, or more fully enjoyed the exer- 
cise ; but it was not until after a two hours' fight, 
extending over a distance of more than a mile, that 
he was brought to gaff. He weighed thirty-four 
pounds, and was the harbinger of many others like 
him captured in these pools during the period we 
remained at the Forks. 

I repeated a hundred times during my first day 
here what the poet says of those athirst in mid- 
ocean : " Water, water every where, but not a drop 
to drink." The cause of this despairing cry on my 
part arose from the fact that while salmon were 
leaping all around me I could not, by any art or 
cunning at my command, lure one to my fly. At 
least twenty large fish were thus disporting them- 
selves within easy cast, but no change of fly and 



180 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

no sleight in casting was of the least avail. They 
seemed impelled by mere exuberance of spirits. 
Sometimes I could see insects moving about in their 
neighborhood ; but oftener nothing whatever ap- 
peared to justify or excuse their tantalizing friski- 
ness. The novel spectacle, however, was entertain- 
ing, and was kept up for several hours without 
intermission. It is possible that some sort of fly 
would have lured them, but as nothing I had 
proved a success, I could only watch and wait. I 
tried to " jig " them — that is, to strike them with 
my hook while they were leaping, but I only suc- 
ceeded in scratching the side of one of them as he 
was returning to his native element. This tanta- 
lizing sport continued so long that I had become 
weary of it, and I was ready to retire when one of 
the " gay gamboliers " took compassion upon me, 
and struck at my fly with such spirit as convinced 
me that I had some lively work before me. He 
was evidently quite as much surprised and startled 
as I was when he found himself under arrest. For 
when he first felt the sting of the hook he held 
himself as motionless as a log, as if cogitating upon 
the probable cause of the new sensation. But his 
cogitations were of short duration. Before I had 
time to up anchor and get properly braced for the 
encounter, he concluded to " go," which he did in 
the handsomest manner possible. He confined 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 181 

himself, however, to the pool, shooting back and 
forth with a rapidity and frequency which rendered 
it very difficult to keep a tant line upon him. I 
supposed, of course, that the disturbance would put 
a stop to the leaping which had been in progress 
through the entire morning. But it did nothing 
of the kind. While I was busy with my fish others 
were as busy jumping as before, and they continued 
to jump, often within a few feet of my canoe, dur- 
ing the whole of the protracted struggle. After a 
half hour's sulking, and a few vigorous attempts 
to break loose, he quietly succumbed. He was of 
medium weight — eighteen pounds — but he was 
only the forerunner of two others of more stately 
proportions that were brought to gaff before the 
going down of the sun. 

The pool directly at the Forks — the intersection 
of the " salmon " and the " lake " branches of the 
river — should, from its position, be the very best 
between tide-water and the Falls. But it is not, 
probably because the pool itself changes with every 
spring freshet. Three of us had tried it faithfully 
in vain, and voted it barren, when Dun demon- 
strated his superior skill or luck by taking four fine 
fish from it after all the rest of us had utterly failed. 
It was neither the first nor the last time that his 
unwearied patience had its reward ; and it was his 
patience quite as much as his skill which enabled 



182 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

him to generally lead all of us in the count. An 
essay on the advantages of this virtue, in every 
department of life, would be appropriate just here. 
But it would be a work of supererogation so far as 
my readers are concerned ; for those who have fol- 
lowed me thus far through these rambling notes 
must possess the virtue in superabundance. 

We had studied salmon pools in all their aspects, 
externally — their surroundings, their apparent 
depths, their currents, their counter-currents, their 
eddies and the particular spots within their circum- 
ference where salmon would be most likely to con- 
gregate. But we had never been able to peer down 
into their hidden depths to see the fish in their 
favorite haunts. To be sure, in passing up and 
down the river, now and then one would cross the 
vision like a silver ray. But, as a rule, they never 
came into view, even where we knew they lay in 
great numbers within easy cast. During the day 
they were hidden by the ripples caused by the cur- 
rents and by the dark depths of the water, as se- 
curely as if they were " in the deep bosom of the 
ocean buried." There was but one mode by which 
we could obtain the view we coveted, to wit : by 
the use of the flambeaux, which the Indians use in 
their night-spearing forays, and by which, properly 
placed in the canoe, the water, to its lowest depths, 
becomes perfectly illuminated, and every object, to 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 183 

the tiniest pebble, is as clearly revealed as if it lay- 
in the palm of your hand. But the use of the flam- 
beaux is strictly prohibited by the laws of the realm. 
Aware of this, we took the precaution on coming 
in to secure a permit from the Warden to make a 
survey of the pools by torchlight, under pledge 
that we would destroy no fish during the process. 
As our object was simply to see the fish in their 
native element, and perhaps thereby learn some- 
thing of their habits, we cheerfully gave the pledge 
and honestly intended to keep it. 

The night chosen for this novel excursion was 
the last of our sojourn at the Forks. It was pitch- 
dark, and when our six canoes put out in Indian 
file, illuminated by a dozen flambeaux, the spectacle 
was exceedingly picturesque. The dense forest 
loomed up grandly in its impenetrable vastness. 
The surface of the river seemed a bed of molten 
silver, and the Indians, as they stood up with set- 
ting pole or paddle, looked weird and ghost-like. 
Starting from the upper pool, we floated down 
more than a mile, salmon at every step showing 
themselves, shooting hither and thither, aroused 
from their repose by the unusual spectacle. Scores 
of fish were seen in pools where we had cast in 
vain; and even in shallow, swift water, where we 
never thought of casting, they appeared in large 
numbers. So long, however, as we continued to 



184 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

float with the current, the view was unsatisfactory, 
except in revealing an abundance of fish. We could 
get no quiet look at them ; they appeared and 
disappeared like a flash. We, however, had as 
favorable an opportunity as we could desire when 
we passed into the still water of " Lazy Bogan " — 
a bayou at the head of the very best pool on the 
river. This bayou is fall of deep holes, with clear 
sandy bottom. Each of these still pools was filled 
with salmon, and as we held our boat above them, 
we could see them perfectly, gracefully moving 
about and with such deliberation as to afford us 
just the view we desired. We saw in this still 
water, where they are not supposed to ordinarily 
resort, at least fifty, of all sizes, ranging from ten 
to forty or fifty pounds. It was a sight worth a 
journey hither, and it will never be forgotten. 

I said we gave our pledge that no fish should 
be killed during our survey. In starting out we 
peremptorily enjoined our guides not to strike 
at the fish, under penalty of our gravest dis- 
pleasure ; and they promised. But they did not 
keep their promise. The moment the schools of 
fish appeared they became w T ild with excitement, 
and, in spite of our constant reminders, they 
would strike out with gaff and pike-pole in a per- 
fect frenzy of delight. They kept up a constant 
shout of "There they go!"' "Salmon!" "See 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 185 

there ! " " Look ! Look ! " accompanying every 
cry with a thrust of their pike-pole or paddle, 
as if they were the spears with which, before 
the laws interposed, they were wont to fill their 
canoes during their night forays. Fortunately, 
only two fish were hit — one with a pike-pole, 
thrown out as a spear, and another scooped up with 
a gaff while boat and fish were both in rapid mo- 
tion. This latter achievement was hailed with 
shouts of delight by all the Indians, and Jack, by 
whom the extraordinary feat was performed, held 
the struggling fish high above his head, while thus 
impaled, exclaiming as he did so : " Ah ! ha ! what 
you say now % who the best gaffer, eh ? what Indian 
can beat that, eh \ " No champion of the ring ever 
manifested greater delight when awarded the belt 
than did Jack when he gaffed this salmon on the 
wing. We were mortified and angered, of course, 
that our peremptory orders had been, in these two 
cases, disobeyed ; but we could not but admire Jack's 
skill, and enjoy the exhibition of Indian character 
which found expression during this exciting and 
never-to-be-forgotten flambeaux visit to the salmon 
pools of the Cascapedia. 

It is only proper to say that we reported this 
illegitimate killing; of two salmon to the Warden 
on our return, explaining the circumstances and 
expressing our mortification and regret. We prof- 

24 



186 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

fered every reparation in our power, in the way of 
humble apology or pecuniary penalty, but we had 
not the heart to name the real delinquents ; for we 
could not but believe that they were so beside 
themselves with excitement that they could not 
have been restrained by any authority. The Ward- 
en, of course, admonished us, as was his duty, but 
kindly consented to overlook the delinquency in 
view of the frankness of our confession and the 
circumstances under which the delinquency oc- 
curred. 



CHAPTEE XXIY. 

BEAR CHASE A GOLD HUNTER TACKLING FOR 

SALMON FISHING. 

I had a glimpse of him, but he shot by me 
Like a young hound upon a burning scent. 

— [Dry den. 

Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold 
Would tempt into a close exploit of death? 

— \Snakspcare. 



EER were at one time very abun- 
dant in this region, but merciless 
bunting at all seasons has either 
extinguished or driven them to 
other feeding-grounds less acces- 
sible to their inhuman enemies. 
It is, however, the Bears' paradise. 
They seem to have a penchant for 
the sheepfolds lying on forest bor- 
ders. Every farmer considers a 
bear-trap as necessary as a plow, and captures are 
frequent. 

Our first camp was in the neighborhood of sev- 
eral farms where bruin had marauded successfully. 
Dun, being the most ambitious hunter in the 
party, was in constant expectation of an opportu- 




188 PLEASURES OF ANGLING-. 

nit j to prove himself as skillful with the rifle as 
with the rod. In the pursuit of minor game he 
had found "a foeman worthy of his steel" in 
Judge Fullerton, whose eye is as keen as his wit, 
and who bags his game as expertly as he extracts 
truth from a reluctant witness. The two were well 
matched. Some of their contests for the cham- 
pionship " astonished the natives," and would have 
secured them backers for the proposed interna- 
tional " shoot " at the Centennial. Both of them 
had " slain their thousands " of every living thing, 
from chipmunk to deer, but neither had ever 
fleshed his maiden bullet in a bear. Both hoped 
and waited ; but Dun had the advantage in that 
he was the owner of the only rifle in camp, and 
made it his constant companion. 

He had begun to despair of a chance to bring a 
bruin to book, when, while quietly enjoying his 
after-dinner pipe, a tiny dug-out was seen gliding 
rapidly across the river from the farm-house di- 
rectly opposite, its occupant shouting lustily, " A 
bear ! a bear ! " This was the signal Dun long 
had waited for, but feared he'd die without the 
sound. The effect upon him, as upon all of us, 
was electrical. In an instant he was in the dug- 
out, accompanied by myself as his henchman. 

The moment we struck the shore our excited 
guide led off on the trail with a speed which would 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 189 

have been creditable in a retreat, but which was 
bad generalship in an advance upon such an enemy. 
The foolish fellow did not seem to understand that 
his followers had neither his wind nor his muscle, 
and that, without a little practice, it was quite im- 
possible to ascend a precipitous mountain-side at a 
two-forty pace, even though a bear's scalp might 
be the prize awaiting us at the end of the race. 
We had run four or ~8lvg hundred yards at our best 
speed, when our guide, far in advance of us, yelled 
out, " Here he is ! here he is ! " in such thunder- 
tones as would have " struck terror to the souls " 
of a thousand bears, had they been in the neigh- 
borhood. The cry, however, was inspiriting. 
Although Dun was already "blowed," the her- 
alded proximity of the enemy gave him new life, 
and he scrambled forward, rifle in hand, with an 
energy which lifted him in my estimation to the 
dignity of an exhaustless wind instrument. For 
myself, I could only lie down and pant. On sped 
Dun, however, like an Indian runner, determined 
to have that bear's hide or die for it. But luck 
was against him. As the guide yelled out, " There 
he goes ! " I saw the beast rise the brow of the 
hill and scamper out of sight, unscathed. But my 
discomfitted friend had had " a good drive out of 
him," and but for the stupidity of the excited 
bumpkin, he could have achieved his life's ambi- 



190 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

tion. It only required a cautious approach; for 
at the first alarm, the bear was quietly feeding upon 
the carcass of a sheep, and would have continued 
his repast until gorged, had he not been disturbed. 

Moose are still numerous, but at this season are 
generally far back in the mountains. An occa- 
sional straggler, however, finds his way into the 
valleys. Their tracks are seen everywhere along 
the river, but it was our fortune (last year) to see 
but one in motion. He was fording the river two 
or three hundred yards below our camp at the 
Forks, and but for the tumult made by our excited 
Indian guides, he could have been bagged. As it 
was, he escaped, a rifle ball following him at ran- 
dom as he passed into the woods. He was about 
the size, color and shape of a Jersey cow. 

Moose, like deer, have been hunted unmerci- 
fully, and are by no means as plentiful as they 
were twenty years ago, when it was an easy matter 
to kill a dozen in a week within ten miles of our 
present encampment. Their threatened extermi- 
nation induced the enactment of very stringent 
laws for their protection; and as such laws are 
more respected here than by the " free and inde- 
pendent electors" on our own borders, within a 
few years moose, like salmon, will be as plenty as 
in their palmiest days. 

Of small game, duck are most abundant. In 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 191 

passing up and down the river, you intercept broods 
at every turn. The cunning shown by the mother 
bird in its efforts to divert atten tion from her young 
is an interesting study. The maternal instinct is 
quite as strongly illustrated in them as in any 
other game-bird known to the sportsman. 

The monotony of our camp was one day broken 
by a visit from a gold seeker, who had faith in an 
Indian tradition of " a mountain of gold" near the 
head-waters of this river. The story goes that some 
fifty years back an old Indian came into the settle- 
ment with several heavy lumps of the precious 
metal which he exhibited to a trader as specimens 
of an inexhaustible supply of "the same sort," 
available to any one who would take the trouble to 
dig for it. The trader pronounced the specimens 
worthless, but succeeded in getting possession of 
them nevertheless. In his cupidity, however, he 
refused to return the Indian an equivalent for his 
prize; and, in revenge, the red man refused to 
reveal the locality of the placer, and as he died one 
day, the secret died with him. It was said, how- 
ever, that when beside himself with the " fire-water " 
of the white man, he so far indicated the neighbor- 
hood of the hidden treasure as to induce, twenty- 
five years ago, a company of credulous white men 
to search for it. Our present visitor, then quite 
young, was one of the party. They discovered 



192 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

signs of gold, they thought, and glittering particles 
that looked like gold, but they had only "their 
labor for their pains." Since then this young man 
had been in California and had acquired an expe- 
rience which he believed would render his present 
search a success. He had chemicals with him to 
test the " golden sands " of this new El Dorado, 
and he pushed on, full of high expectations. But, 
alas! for the mutability of all human hopes, he 
returned in six days a disappointed man. He suc- 
ceeded, he said, in getting within five miles of the 
golden mountain, but his Tiigh-heeled hoots behaved 
so badly that he could not prosecute his search !: 
The Indians who accompanied him said he became 
frightened. But, however that may be, he certainly 
failed, and had his journey from the far West to 
the head-waters of the Cascapedia for nothing. He 
returned, like many another gold-seeker, the victim 
of misplaced confidence. There are those who still 
have faith in this old tradition, and the search will 
be kept up so long as unreasoning credulity remains 
to vex the race. 

Before "reeling up" these disjointed and weari- 
some notes, as I shall do very soon, it may not 
be deemed out of place to proffer just a word 
of counsel to those who may, at some not distant 
day in the golden future, have the happiness to 
" go-a-fishing," if not in the Cascapedia, in some 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 193 

other of the multitude of rivers where salmon 
gather. 

Happy beyond his fellows is the angler who has 
the skill to "fix up" his own tackling, to tie his 
own flies, to properly adjust his own reels, to make 
up his own leaders, and to do whatever else is 
necessary to be done to render him superior to 
calamity and independent of all ordinary mishaps. 
It took me many years to acquire this skill and 
more years to command the leisure to render it 
available. But even now, I am often obliged to 
call in the aid of experts to do for me what (if I 
could) I would find great pleasure in doing for 
myself. The finest salmon-flies I ever saw were 
made by our recent townsman, Dean Sage — an 
expert in all the intricacies of the art, and the 
possessor of all the high qualities and gentle vir- 
tues of the noble guild of anglers. Judge Fuller- 
ton, of our party, also possesses this desirable gift 
of deftness in large measure. If he had turned 
his attention to mechanics instead of the law, he 
would have become quite as eminent as an artisan 
as he now is in the profession he adorns. 

My experience of last year, or rather the expe- 
rience of others — for I was unusually exempt from 
accidents — taught me that it is never safe, where 
the fish sometimes reach the weight of forty pounds, 
to rely upon a single rod, line or reel, however 



194 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

excellent. They should always be held in dupli- 
cate. One is apt to be over-timid who has nothing 
to fall back upon in case of breakage ; and nothing 
is more fatal to success and nothing more unplea- 
sant than the constant fear that an extra pressure 
may snap things and exhaust one's resources. The 
best of tackling and plenty of it is the only safe 
rule. If, as in my case, no breakage happens, you 
will still have the satisfaction of knowing that you 
are prepared for the worst. My rod and line of 
last year served me through this, although my three 
hours and twenty minutes fight with my last fish 
caused such a perceptible weakening of one joint 
of my rod as to indicate that a few more such 
struggles would cause a rupture. I would sincerely 
regret such a calamity, for, by the verdict of every 
expert who has handled it, as well as by the verdict 
of my own experience, a better salmon-rod, in 
strength and elasticity, never responded to the cast 
of an angler. And yet it is one of the plain sort, 
of medium cost and beauty, like some fast steppers 
you occasionally meet with, u nothing to look at 
but great to go." It springs, with mathematical 
exactness, from tip to butt, and only requires the 
gentlest effort to launch out a sufficient cast to 
cover any pool of ordinary circumference. Two 
of our party had superfine split bamboos, upon 
whose construction as much skill had been dis- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 195 

played as money could command ; but they both 
discarded them, after faithful and fatal trial, for 
rods the counterpart of my own, with the most 
satisfactory results. And yet there are those who 
prefer the bamboo ; and some of the best anglers 
of my acquaintance use no other. But all bamboo 
rods are not alike any more than all rods of solid 
woods. The handsomest rod I ever owned, of 
foreign make at that, and which was pronounced 
by all who ever examined it to be as good in qual- 
ity as in looks, proved to be worthless. After 
using my favorite rod, it was like casting with a 
hoop-pole, and has taught me, what all men are 
taught sooner or later, never to trust to appearances, 
either in fishing-rods or men. 



CHAPTEE XXY. 



DOWN THE RIVER RUNNING THE RAPIDS A WORD 

OF WARNING HOMEWARD BOUND. 

And now, scholar, with the help of this fine morning and 
your patient attention, I have said all that my present mem- 
ory will afford me. * * But I shall long for the month of 
May; for then I hope again to enjoy your beloved company 
at the appointed time and place. And now I wish for some 
somniferous potion that might force me to sleep away the in- 
termitted time, which will pass away with me as tediousty as 
it does with men in sorrow ; nevertheless I will make it as 
short as I can with my hopes and wishes. * * These 
thoughts have been told you that you may also join in thank- 
fulness to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, for our 
happiness. * * So, scholar, I will stop here. — [Sir Izaak 
Walton. 




\.UR week's sojourn at the Forks 
passed away "like a tale that is 
told ; " but its memory, like " a 
thing of beauty," will remain to 
us "a joy forever." It was an 
uninterrupted carnival of pleas- 
ure. If all nature had combined 
to minister to oar happiness, we 
could not have been made more 
supremely content; and in a spirit scarcely less 
devout than that which moved the Psalmist, 
we often exclaimed, " Our cup runneth over ; " 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 197 

" surely mercy and peace hath followed us all the 
days of our " sojourn in these quiet places. 

The morning after our torch-light review of the 
salmon pools was cloudless and serene. The grand 
old forest seemed the temple of silence. The air 
was full of the sweet odors of pine and wild- 
flowers, and the early morning light came down 
through the dense foliage like a divine benediction. 
The pleasant murmur of the running waters, blend- 
ing with the plaintive chirp and whistle of the 
wood-bird, went down into the heart like the still 
small voice of the Spirit, awakening tender emo- 
tions of gratitude and thanksgiving. To the de- 
vout mind, these vast forest-temples are the best 
types of that other temple " not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens," whose ineffable glories are 
yet to break upon the enraptured vision of the 
redeemed. 

4 

The sun was just scattering his golden dust upon 
the green foliage which gives beauty to the rugged 
summit of " Big Berry Mountain," when the Gen- 
eral issued his order to embark. It was hard to 
say "good-by" to a place where we had enjoyed 
so many days of superb angling and so many even- 
ings of joyous camp-life. But the tenth of August 
— the end of our permit, and practically, of the 
fishing season — had arrived and we must needs go 
home. So, with a sigh and a farewell to this place 



198 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

of pleasant memories, with a salute from our only- 
rifle and a cheer from all of us, we swept out into 
the swift current, and were " homeward bound." 

What a contrast to our tedious ascent was this 
seaward journey ! Our light canoes glided through 
the water like birds in the air. Although there 
are many " stretches " unbroken by rapids, there 
is no point on the river, from its source to tide- 
water, where the current does not move quite four 
miles an hour. The first nine miles were mostly 
of this quiet character, and it is impossible to con- 
ceive of anything more delightfully exhilarating 
than the movement through such waters on such a 
morning as that in which we made the journey. 
It was the very poetry of motion. The sun was 
without a cloud ; the air was just of the tempera- 
ture one would like to bask in forever ; the foli- 
age still sparkled with the dew of the morning; 
the mountains were aglow with sunlight, while 
midway of their summits the early mists hung in 
great silvery masses, forming pictures which 
dwarfed the grandest handiwork of man, and 
awed us with their vastness, their grandeur and 
their indescribable beauty. Every bend of the 
river revealed some new landscape to admire, while 
the chirp and whistle and song of ten thousand 
wood-birds found responsive melody in our own 
glad hearts. It was no surprise to me that my com- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING-. 199 

pardons gave occasional expression., in shout and 
song, to their ecstatic emotions ; and if I responded 
in kind, it was simply because it was quite impos- 
sible to refrain from giving some audible token of 
my entire sympathy with them. It is not often 
one reaches such a condition of mind and body as 
to find himself in perfect accord with the poet : 

One sip of this 
Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight 
Beyond the bliss of dreams. 

Such moments, however, occasionally come to 
every one of us, but never more impressively 
than when surrounded by the sublime and beauti- 
ful in nature ; when enveloped in an atmosphere 
charged with the very elements of perpetual 
youth, serene and balmy as the breath of God. 
Where more than in the solitudes of the forests 
are these emotions likely to come to the spirit of 
the thoughtful and devout ? The Psalmist had a 
glimpse of what was attainable amid such sur- 
roundings, when he exclaimed : 

4i Oh, that T had wings like a dove ! for then would I fly 
away, and be at rest. 

" Lo ! then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilder- 
ness." 

In six hours we compassed the distance which 
required two days of hard work to accomplish 
when moving against the current. The flight 



200 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

down the numerous rapids was intensely exciting. 
It requires a quick eye and a steady hand to 
run the chute in safety. But accidents are rare. 
The Indian guides, who were born on the river, 
are as familiar with every hidden bowlder and 
every dangerous eddy as the denizen of the city is 
with the pathway to his place of business, and 
they take their canoes safely through channels 
where, if directed by the uninitiated, they would 
be inevitably dashed into fragments. As a rule, it 
is perfectly safe to go where an Indian is willing 
to take you. He has just that sort of discreet 
courage which leads him to keep as far from dan- 
ger as possible ; and he will never take his canoe 
into waters he is not quite sure he can safely navi- 
gate. I only once insisted that my guide should 
go through a channel which he pronounced unsafe. 
He obeyed orders under protest, wondering at my 
foolhardiness and temerity. The result of the 
experiment may have given him a favorable opin- 
ion of my courage, but I am sure it depreciated 
his previous estimate of my good sense. The 
sensation was somewhat thrilling as we dashed 
through the boiling cauldron, but it was purchased 
at the expense of saturated garments and a half- 
filled canoe. But for the almost superhuman ef- 
forts of the faithful fellow we would have been 
inevitably swamped, if not badly bruised and bat- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 201 

tered by the jagged rocks which everywhere 
show themselves in the midst of these impetuous 
rapids. I never again asked my Indian to take me 
where he didn't wish to go himself. 

After a short stop at our first camp, the capture 
of a few more salmon in Shedden pool, and the 
proper packing of our camp equipage to be in 
readiness for our hoped-for visit next June, we 
" reeled up " and were off. We had had a month 
of rest and enjoyment such as can only be attained 
in the solitudes of the forest and on a river famous 
for the magnificence of its scenery and the size, 
vigor and kingly character of its fish. 

And just here, in closing up these rambling 
sketches, it may be proper to remind some of my 
readers of the old adage that " what is one man's 
meat is another man's poison." It is not conclu- 
sive that because angling, with its pleasant con- 
comitants, affords the highest pleasure to the few, 
that it would be found equally attractive to the 
many. It may not be true to the extent assumed 
by good old Sir Izaak, that to become an expert 
angler or a true poet, one " must be born so." But 
it is true that peculiar tastes are necessary to the 
full enjoyment of any special pastime. The man 
who is only happy in a crowd, would soon become 
tired of the stillness and solitude of the forest. 
He who finds his chief pleasure amid the luxuries 

26 



202 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

and ornamentations of artificial life, would speedily 
weary of the cloud-capped mountain, the shadow 
of the woods, the melody of the singing waters, 
the cheery abandon of camp-life, the informal 
and unostentatious courtesy and pleasant conversa- 
tion of the " simple wise men " who find delecta- 
tion in these quiet places. Every angler has mel- 
ancholy memories of this fact — the recollection 
of many spoiled vacations by reason of the uncon- 
genial companionship of " dear friends " who had 
mistakenly fancied that what gave pleasure to 
others could not fail to contribute to their own 
happiness. But on trial, instead of pleasure they 
found only ennui / and by their evident discom- 
fort they rendered every one about them as miser- 
able as they were themselves. And this, not be- 
cause they were not au fait in all the courtesies 
and proprieties of social life, nor yet because they 
were indifferent to the happiness of others, but 
simply because their tastes were not in harmony 
with their surroundings, and so were disappointed 
in the realization of their high anticipations. 

I would, therefore, recommend no one to seek 
pleasure from a protracted sojourn in the woods, 
either with rod or rifle, until he tests his tastes by 
brief excursions. If he so enjoys a few days 
" under canvas " that he longs for a repetition of 
the pleasure, he may reasonably hope that a month 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 203 

on a salmon river would not be tedious. But, as 
you regard your own comfort and the comfort of 
others, do not assume that, because your friend 
finds his highest pleasure in the practice of the 
gentle art, you also must needs be happy in its 
pursuit. 

To give variety to our trip we took carriages 
from New Kichmond for a thirty-mile ride along 
the borders of the Bay of Chaleur ; and we en- 
joyed it greatly. Almost the whole distance is a 
continuous village, and nearly all the houses are 
the abodes of men who make a precarious living 
by catching and curing codfish for the markets of 
the world. For more than a hundred and fifty 
years this has been the chief occupation of all the 
residents of this coast. The result is extreme pov- 
erty and — contentment. The men of to-day live 
and labor as their fathers had done through many 
generations. This, however, can be said for them 
— they are the most polite people on the continent. 
Meet whom you would, man or boy, on foot or 
borne along in his rickety cart or jaunty calash, 
no matter, you were sure of a graceful greeting. 
During our ride of thirty miles, in no single 
instance was this act of courtesy forgotten. It 
was a custom I had met nowhere else in all my 
wanderings. 

Taking the steamboat at Paspebiac, we had a 



204 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

pleasant two days' sail through the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence to Quebec, thence by rail to Montreal 
and home — grateful for what we had enjoyed, 
and hopeful of the return of another season when 
we shall again be able to " go a-fishing." 



Trout Fishing in the Adirondack. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

VISIT TO THE ADIRONDACKS IN 1873 WHEN TO 

FISH A STATE PARK FOREST MEDICINE. 

Angling is somewhat like poetry : men are to be born so — 
I mean with inclinations to it, though both may be height- 
ened by discourse and practice. But he that hopes to be a 
good angler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, ob- 
serving wit, but he must bring a large measure of hope and 
patience, and a love and propensity to the art itself. But 
having once got and practiced it, then doubt not but that 
angling will be so pleasant that it will prove to be, like vir- 
tue, a reward to itself. — [Sir Izaak Walton. 



H AYE discovered that many beside 
experts take pleasure in reading 
whatever is said in praise of ang- 
ling. They have the good taste 
to appreciate a healthful amuse- 
ment which they have not the 
leisure to enjoy. I made this dis- 
discovery many years ago, when 
I began a series of letters from 
"The Woods," which I kept up 
without intermission until that summer of disas- 
ters when McClellan led so many of our brave 
boys to defeat and death. It seemed like mockery 
to draw pleasant pictures or speak of personal 




208 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

enjoyments when the whole nation was in tears, 
when ten thousand Rachels were weeping for 
their children, and when the shadow of death 
hung like a pall over the whole land. So, from 
that time to this I have made no record of these 
delightful excursions. Although I have been thus 
silent for so many years, with the exception of a 
single summer (of sad memory), I have been per- 
mitted to enjoy my month's sport, always awaiting 
its coming with longing, and always entering upon 
it with new zest and ever-growing pleasure. 

It was weary waiting this year for " the time of 
the singing of birds " to come. The spring was 
more backward than for twenty years. The snow 
lingered in the woods until far on in May, and it 
was not until the middle of the month that experi- 
enced anglers deemed it worth while to wet their 
lines in any of the waters of the Adirondacks. For 
be it known to all novices in the art, and to all 
who hope to become used to the ways of trout, and 
experts in their capture, that the best sport only 
comes after the snow-water has disappeared and the 
streams have acquired their natural clearness and 
placidity. High water is not desirable, even for 
spring fishing ; but it is not fatal to success. One 
has only to know the ground he traverses, and the 
best points at different seasons, to gather success 
even with full banks ; but a flood is not to be 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 209 

coveted. The best results are attainable in the 
spring when the water is falling, and in the sum- 
mer when it is rising. I have fished in vain in 
August through a whole day, at the outlets of 
favorite streams, where, after a rain, I have taken 
trout in great numbers. A sharp summer shower, 
by raising the brooks, brings down the feed from 
the upper waters, and the trout, who know when 
it rains as well as the angler, concentrate to gather 
the harvest sent to them. He is fortunate who is 
at hand to avail himself of such occasions. 

In all this region the ice usually disappears from 
the lakes between the middle and close of April, 
and I have sometimes started out on the first of 
May to begin my spring's fishing. But this year 
it was the 9th of May before the ice succumbed, 
and the 15th found the snow still intact on the 
shaded hill-sides and through all the valleys. It 
was tedious waiting; but there is an end to all 
things, even to a tardy spring and the chilling 
relics of a long winter. 

As soon as the ice leaves, you may hope for suc- 
cess in trolling. Lake-trout are a gamey fish, and 
their capture affords exciting sport to those who 
like it ; but it has always seemed to me monoton- 
ous and unartistic. Given a proper length of line, 
weight of sinker, strength of rod, and an intelli- 
gent guide, an expert seems to have no advantage 
27 



210 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

over a novice, except in the single act of landing 
the fish after he strikes. Unlike fly-fishing, it 
affords no muscular exercise, no constantly recur- 
ring excitement, no skillful casting, no delicate 
manipulation, and none of the thrill which follows 
the rise and rush of the fish for the lure which 
rests upon the surface of the water. And yet it is 
a pleasant pastime, healthful and invigorating, af- 
fording ample opportunity for reading and medi- 
tation, and bringing before the eye ever-changing 
views of the grand old mountains and forest-clad 
valleys which constitute the attractiveness and 
beauty of all this region. "When the " grasshopper 
shall become a burden," when " those that look out 
of the windows shall be darkened," when "the 
keepers of the house shall tremble," when my 
" right hand shall forget its cunning," and when 
I shall no longer be able to wade the mountain 
stream or cast a fly, if Providence shall thus gently 
lead me homeward, I shall doubtless find delight 
in this less robust and less exhilarating amusement. 
But, meanwhile, I shall leave the troll to those 
whose waning vigor, neglected education, imma- 
ture tastes or blissful ignorance render them con- 
tent with this primary branch of the angler's art. 

The "signs" which mark the advent of the 
" good time " longed for through seven months of 
weary winter and tardy spring — the budding of 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 211 

flowers and the blossoming of f rnit-trees — having 
come, with a single companion, and with an elastic 
buoyancy not at all in keeping with the traditional 
rheumatic propriety of time-wrinkles and silvered 
locks, we moved off, on the 23d of May, for that 
Eden of Anglers, where nature unadorned excels 
in picturesqueness and grandeur, as well as in vast- 
ness and magnificence, all the noted parks and pre- 
serves which have acquired their attractiveness and 
beauty through the genius, taste and affluence of 
man. And I trust that this vast forest may never 
be less a forest than it is to-day. The movement 
recently initiated to declare it and hold it in perpe- 
tuity as a state park, marks the wisdom of those 
who made the suggestion, is in harmony with the 
spirit of the age, and, a century hence, if now 
inaugurated, will be recognized as the highest proof 
of the wisdom, sagacity and foresight of the states- 
men of our time. And this not simply because it 
would thus remain forever a resort for the sports- 
man and invalid, but because it would remain for- 
ever, as it is to-day, the abundant feeder of several 
of our navigable rivers, and the best guarantee, as 
science assures us, of that equable temperature and 
uniform rain-fall which are so essential to the ma- 
terial prosperity of the State. The arguments in. 
favor of the proposition are irresistible to all but 
those who contemn the logic of science and " take 



212 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

no thought " for the generations to come, who 
will follow us with their blessings or their maledic- 
tions according as what we project or accomplish 
is petty and injurious or grand and beneficent. 

Many wonder that veteran anglers so often enter 
this vast solitude alone, or with but one or two 
companions. The answer is easy. It is impossible 
for men of radically dissimilar tastes in minor mat- 
ters to always enjoy each others' companionship in 
the compulsory intimacy of camp-life. The slight- 
est exhibition of uneasiness, discontent or impa- 
tience is sufficient to cast a shadow upon the whole 
camp, and excite perpetual apprehension lest the 
programme of the day shall run counter to the 
wishes of some of " the crowd." One who goes 
into the woods to find a respite from the rasping 
collisions of business or professional life, does not 
like to encounter disharmonies in the very solitude 
where he had thought to find repose. It would 
not be difficult to pick up a score of good fellows, 
enthusiastic anglers and excellent companions ; but 
it would be difficult to find half that number who 
would be always in harmony on the minor points 
of camp-life. There are some who desire to be 
always moving and others who are satisfied wher- 
ever the surroundings are pleasant and fishing tole- 
rable — who are content with the poorest " luck," 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 213 

and who find their highest enjoyment in killing 
trout in the most improbable places. 

It was not nntil the 25 th of May that the bud- 
ding flowers and fruit-tree blossoms gave token that 
the time had come when one might hope for suc- 
cess in angling in these prolific waters. It was a 
pleasant day, clear and sunny, just such a day as 
one likes to have when starting out upon a journey, 
whether of business or of pleasure. A brief run 
to Whitehall, and a quiet night-ride through Lake 
Champlain brought us to Plattsburg, the gate-way 
to the wilderness. 

The road from thence to the Saranac lake, twenty 
miles by rail and thirty-five by wagon over a fair 
road, opens up a constant succession of grand 
mountain views, making the ride one of the most 
agreeable and picturesque to be found within the 
compass of the State. 

Martin's hostelry, which has been quadrupled in 
dimensions since 1 first visited it fifteen years ago, 
is located at the foot of the lower Saranac, and is 
one of the two or three really excellent resting- 
places in the wilderness. My only present objec- 
tion to it is that it too much resembles, in its ser- 
vice and appointments, the '" first-class " hotels of 
our more fashionable watering-places. But so we 
go. No sooner do we find a pleasant place where 
we can literally " take mine ease in mine inn,'' and 



214 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

walk about, if one so pleases, in slippers and shirt- 
sleeves, than presto, silk trails, patent-leather boots 
and kid gloves drive us elsewhere to find simple 
comfort, unincumbered by stately formalities and 
white cravats. Bat Martin deserves the prosperity 
he is enjoying ; and he knows so well " how it is 
himself," that he always reserves " space and verge 
enough" in his ample mansion to permit the unos- 
tentatious and quietly disposed angler to enjoy 
himself in his own way without disturbing the less 
simple-minded guests who come hither to breathe 
the pure mountain air and renew their youth. 

Notwithstanding the nonsense Murray and others 
have written about the beneficent influence of a 
trip through the Adirondacks upon the health of 
hopeless invalids, the real invalids — those who 
require home-like repose as well as change of air 
— have generally too much good sense to believe 
that an exhausting journey, exposed to all sorts of 
weather and to inconveniences and hardships un- 
bearable without very considerable vitality, can, by 
possibility, be beneficial. To be sure, the year suc- 
ceeding the publication of Murray's book, not a few, 
standing on the very brink of the grave, were de- 
luded into the hope that, if they could but manage 
to drag themselves or to be dragged from the Sara- 
nacs to the Fulton range, they would, by some 
undefinable process, experience the miracle of a 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 215 

resurrection. But after a few had suffered miser- 
ably and others had died in the effort, the delusion 
vanished, and now the very sick wisely conclude 
that while the pure atmosphere of this region is of 
real service, it has no such miraculous power as 
has been attributed to it. They find that to be 
benefited by it they must seek the comfort and 
repose of a well appointed dwelling rather than 
the discomforts and inconveniences of camp-life, 
and that where there is serious illness, " there is 
no place like home." In the initiative of disease, 
when the system is enervated by overwork of 
muscle or brain, it will derive lasting benefit from 
a summer's sojourn here. But it would be far 
better if those thus suffering should make this 
pilgrimage before, rather than after, their malady 
becomes chronic. 

I had never before been so late in my spring 
trip to the woods. But I knew too much of the 
habits and haunts of the trout to waste my time 
by calling upon them before their house was in 
order or before they were in the humor to give us 
a cordial reception. On reaching Martin's, I 
found a score of disappointed fishermen, bewailing 
the degeneracy of the waters and the scarcity and 
shyness of the fish. Because they had always 
previously had luck early in May, they could not 
understand why they should now fish in vain, 



216 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

fished they ever so expertly. I, of course, did my 
best to comfort them, and assured them of good 
sport if they had the patience to wait for it, but 
that they might as well expect to find full-blown 
lilies upon the surface of a frozen lake as brook- 
trout in the rising mood while the streams were 
roiled by the fast-flowing snow-water. 

A few sunny days after the 25th accomplished 
what was needful. Fish may be caught in the 
lakes, by trolling, as soon as the ice disappears, but 
even lake-trout are lazy, or " hug the bottom," 
until they are quickened into life or lured to the 
surface by sunshine and warm weather. As I am 
writing, I notice a very pleasant letter in the 
Journal of Commerce, from a venerable angler, in 
which he plaintively refers to his ill-luck early in 
May. And his experience was the experience of 
every one. It was, this year, the 25th before there 
was good fishing. All who came in earlier were 
disappointed ; and those who took their departure 
before the 30th, doubtless did so with the false im- 
pression that here as elswhere, trout fishing was 
" played out." If so, they were simply mistaken. 
The present generation of anglers will be "played 
out" long before trout fishing in the Adirondacks. 
To be sure, the scamps who placed pickerel in Long 
Lake, and the Fish Commissioners who planted 
black bass in the Raquette did what they could to 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 217 

accomplish this result ; but there will be trout in 
those waters long after those who perpetrated this 
folly shall have passed over their rods and reels to 
their successors. 

The high water caused by the dam at Setting- 
Pole rapids is working great mischief in all this 
region. It has caused the overflow of tens of 
thousands of acres. The result will be that the 
beauty of the Raquette and its connected lakes 
will be marred by the destruction of the beautiful 
evergreens and maples which line their banks, and 
which have rendered them so wonderfully attrac- 
tive and picturesque. But this is not all. The 
receding waters in midsummer must leave this 
whole region a reeking mass of decaying vegeta- 
tion, filling the air with fever-exciting miasma, and 
making a sojourn in the midst of it exceedingly 
hazardous. Its effects are already seen in the 
thousands of dead trees which mar the beauty of 
the river's banks, and the coming August will 
demonstrate its pernicious influence upon the com- 
fort and health of visitors, and the scattered resi- 
dents upon its borders. If the effects apprehended 
are realized, the dam will be abated as a nuisance, 
by lawful process or otherwise — unless indeed the 
threatened suits for damages by parties aggrieved 
shall induce its owners to rid themselves of trouble- 
some litigation by destroying the dam themselves. 

28 . , 



218 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

Anglers are chiefly aggrieved by this obstruction 
to the free flow of the water because it has de- 
stroyed several favorite trout-haunts — notably 
Cole's Point and Lothrop's Chopping, where for 
many years I have had my best spring fly fishing. 
The eight or ten feet artificially added to the body 
of the water have so changed the currents of the 
river that they are no longer gathering places for 
trout. But in spite of this desecration, these old 
waters still afford ample amusement for those who 
fish them patiently and with moderate skill. 



CHAPTEK XXVII. 

FOREST WANDERINGS ECCENTRICITIES OF MEMORY 

— A LONG CONTEST. 

Look you ! here is a trout will fill six reasonable bellies. — 

[Sir Izaak Walton. 




HE lower Saranac is closely fished, 
but it still affords good sport with 
the troll. The lake-trout are gen- 
erally of medium size, varying 
from two to eight pounds, and 
occasionally running as high as 
ten and twelve. There are not 
many lakes in the woods so per- 
sistently fished, and not many 
which make better returns to the patient angler. 
There are a few gentlemen who seldom go beyond 
it and its connected waters, notably the vener- 
able Mr. Arnold, of Keeseville, whose nearly 
fourscore years are kept mellow by the time 
he gives to this healthful recreation. Others, who 
have reached the sear-and-yellow-leaf time of 
life, would find their setting sun reflecting back 
a cheerier light if they would imitate his good 
example. 



220 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

In August there is not much better fly fishing in 
all these woods than can be had in Cold and Ray 
brooks, which empty into the Saranac within a few 
miles of Martin's ; and the trout are large as well 
as abundant. But only a few stop to fish there, 
hoping, often mistakenly, that a longer journey 
will insure them better sport. But many "go 
farther and fare worse." In the spring, however, 
to " go farther " is a necessity, as these brooks are 
not worth visiting before midsummer. 

I have very pleasant recollections of my two 
visits to them, last year and the year before, far on 
in the month of August. Lying some three or 
four miles off from the straight line to the Ra- 
quette, I had not, until two years ago, deemed it 
worth while to experiment in new waters during 
the brief time I take in August, and so had always 
previously pushed on to my old haunts, but not 
always to my entire satisfaction. 

The spring is the time for exploration, and I 
find no greater pleasure than in following my pilot 
over untrodden paths, with no other guide than is 
afforded by the pocket compass or the blazed tree. 
The tramp is sometimes wearisome, but always 
charming, both in anticipation and in realization. 
As I look back upon these excursions, a thousand 
delightful reminiscences come to me as freshly and 
as vividly as if some of them did not reach back 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 221 

more than a score of years — long before my locks 
were frosted or my vision dimmed ; recollections 
of shady nooks, where rays of sunlight came down 
through the rustling leaves like lines of silver ; of 
huge masses of gray rock, imbedded in thick moss, 
softer and more inviting than the luxurious divans 
of the drawing-room ; of the " expressive silence " 
of the old woods, when, after the ascent of some 
rugged hill, we sat down to rest, indifferent, amid 
such surroundings, to the admonitions of prudence 
or the march of time. Enveloped in a golden sun- 
set, with the forest birds making the woods vocal 
with their sweet melody, and with my own heart 
in unison with all these harmonies of nature, I 
have often found myself, with no other feelings 
than those of devout reverence and gratitude, re- 
peating the words of the Psalmist: "How excel- 
lent is thy loving kindness, O G-od ! therefore the 
children of men put their trust under the shadow 
of thy wing." 

It is, as I have said, in the spring time that I 
make these diversions from the beaten path, and 
I have more than once thus discovered unfished 
waters, where, since "the morning stars sang to- 
gether," no line had been cast or trout captured. 
They remain as sunny places upon the map of my 
memory, and are often revisited, although now up- 
on the borders of some of them may be seen the 
hunter's camp and the fisherman's shanty. 



222 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

And talking of memory, what a wonderful 
faculty it is! How drolly things long forgotten 
sometimes come back to us, without effort and 
without thought, like a vision, as if the events of 
ten or twenty years agone had occurred but yester- 
day! The books are full of curious instances. 
1 have a few not in the books, but apropos to my 
theme, and which, while I am moving slowly on 
my way to the Raquette, may afford some one a 
moment's amusement. 

One morning, twenty years ago, while encamped 
on the Fourth lake of the Fulton range, I was sit- 
ting on a freshly fallen spruce tree adjusting my 
reel for work, when the ever-welcome and long 
waited for call to breakfast was sounded. I hur- 
riedly laid aside the reel and responded to the call. 
On sitting down to the table I found a disagreeable 
quantity of the exudations of the spruce tree adher- 
ing to my fingers. It troubled me to remove it, 
and what with that and the pleasures of the table, 
I was totally unable, afterward, to remember where 
I had left my reel, and was obliged to provide 
another for my day's fishing. Two years after- 
ward I chanced to camp on the same spot, and 
while idly moving about I discovered a hacked 
spruce tree from which had exuded large globules 
of gum, clear as crystal. In breaking it off, some 
particles unpleasantly adhered to my fingers, when, 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 223 

like a flash, all the incidents of the old time came 
to my mind, and without a moment's hesitation I 
walked to the old spruce tree where I had then 
been adjusting my reel, and picked it up on the 
very spot where it had fallen two years before. 

Here is another instance : More than fifty years 
ago, when a very little fellow, in company with 
others, I was lost in the woods. After many miles 
of weary wandering we came out upon a clearing, 
half famished. But the only food we could pro- 
cure with which to appease our hunger was boiled 
potatoes and salt pickles. They must have been 
delicious, for to this day I never see a potato and 
pickle in juxtaposition without being carried back 
these fifty years, and see directly before me the 
earth-covered potato-heap from which the "boil- 
ing " was taken, the begrimmed pork barrel out of 
whose ponderous depths the pickles were abstracted, 
and the huge " crane " which swung across the 
huger chimney within whose ample "jams" the 
potato-pot was boiled. I have had a penchant for 
potatoes and pickles ever since. 

Still another : One who, before disease had laid 
its heavy hand upon him, was wont to accompany 
me upon all my angling excursions, had the mis- 
fortune to become the possessor of a counterfeit 
five-dollar bill. As, poor fellow, his heart was 
always fuller of kind thoughts and generous pur- 



224 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

poses than his pocket-book of bank bills, he very 
naturally racked his brain to remember from whom 
he had obtained the rascally counterfeit. Months 
afterward it was still in his wallet, and he was in 
the habit of showing it to his friends to test their 
skill as judges of genuine currency. On one occa- 
sion, more than a year after he became the posses- 
sor of the bill, an expert pointed out to him a tiny 
spot upon it, which, to the expert, furnished incon- 
testible proof of its character. In bringing the 
bill close to his eyes to discover the defect to which 
his friend had directed his attention, he held it 
near his nostrils and instantly detected the odor of 
fresh beef After a second sniff, he stepped back 
with an air and attitude as tragic and as artistic as 
ever Forrest assumed in his role of Metamora, and 
exclaimed : 

" I now do know the sanguinary wretch 

Who thus hath tricked me of my honest gains ; 

And by the rood [he meant rod] which gentle Izaak plied, 

I'll make the fiend disgor-r-r-ge. 

This bill came to me from my butcher ! " 
And such was the fact. The delinquent remem- 
bered having missed a counterfeit five which he 
had kept hidden, as he supposed, but which, by 
some accident, had found its way into the till 
which contained genuine money. My friend has 
thought well of his nose ever since. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 225 

But who has not passed through a like experi- 
ence, where the odor of a flower, the swing of the 
arm, a single note of long forgotten mnsic, the 
curve of a fence, a flash of lightning, the whistle 
of the winter's wind, a smile, a sigh, a laugh, a 
word, a tone has brought back scenes, friends, 
incidents and situations which, but for these 
fleeting reminders, would have remained buried 
in the memory until the coming of that more 
mysterious transition when "all we ever did or 
said or felt shall, like a marshaled host, pass in 
full review before the immortal mind." 

And now having, during this little bit of irrele- 
vancy, passed over the five miles which intervene 
between Martin's and the river entrance to Cold 
and Ray brooks, where I went the last two Au- 
gusts, I wish only to say that, in the proper season, 
they will afford, with moderate skill and patience, 
such sport as is rarely vouchsafed to any angler 
anywhere. At least, such was my experience two 
years ago, when during a short afternoon I landed 
from a deep pool in Cold brook fifty splendid 
trout, and fished three hours for one. It was on 
this wise : For an hour or more before sunset, a 
trout which I estimated to weigh more than three 
pounds kept the water in constant agitation and 
myself in a fever of excitement. I cast for him a 
hundred times at least. With almost every cast he 
29 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

would rise, but would not strike. He would come 
up with a rush, leap his full length out of the 
water, shake his broad tail at me as if in derision, 
and retire to repeat his aggravating exploits as 
often as the fly struck the water. Other trout rose, 
almost his equal in dimensions, and were taken, 
but their capture soon ceased to afford me the 
slightest pleasure. The sun was rapidly declining. 
We had eight miles to row, and prudence dictated 
a speedy departure. But I was bound to land that, 
trout "if it took all summer." I tried -almost 
every fly in my book in vain ; I simply witnessed 
the same provoking gyrations at every cast. • If, 
however, I threw him a grasshopper disconnected 
from my line, he would take it with a gulp ; but 
the moment I affixed one to the hook and cast it 
ever so gently, up he came and down he went 
unhooked, with the grasshopper intact. I was 
puzzled, and as a last resort I sat quietly down 
hopeless of achieving success so long as light 
enough remained for the wary fellow to detect the 
shadow of rod or line. The sun soon set. Twi- 
light gently began its work of obscuration, and in 
due time just the shadow I desired fell upon the 
surface of the pool. I then disrobed my leader of 
its quartette of flies, put on a large miller, and 
with as much caution as if commissioned to sur- 
prise a rebel camp, and with like trepidation, I 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 227 

chose my position. Then, with a twist of the 
wrist which experts will comprehend, I dropped 
my fly as gently as a zephyr just where the mon- 
ster had made his last tantalizing leap, when, with 
the ferocity of a mad bull and with a quick dash 
which fairly startled me in the dim twilight, he 
rose to my miller, and with another twist of the 
wrist, as quick and as sudden as his rise, I struck 
him ! I have been present in crowds when grand 
victories have been suddenly announced, and when 
my blood has rushed like electric currents through 
my veins as I joined in the spontaneous shout of 
the' multitude, but I have passed through no mo- 
ment of more intense exhilaration than when I 
knew, by the graceful curve of my rod and by the 
steady tension of my trusty line, that I was master 
of the situation. He pulled like a Canastoga stal- 
lion, and " gave me all I knew " to hold him with- 
in the restricted circle of the deep pool, whose 
edges were lined with roots and stumps and things 
equivalent. It was an half hour's stirring contest, 
and the hooting of the owl in the midst of the 
darkness which enveloped us was the trout's re- 
quiem. When I had landed him and had him 
fairly in quad, will it be deemed silly for me to say 
that I made the old woods ring with such a shout 
as one can only give when conscious of having 
achieved a great victory ? 



CHAPTER XXYIIL 



SILENT MEN A LONG LOOK AHEAD COCKNEY 

. FISHERMEN — TROUT HABITS. 

Think not silence the wisdom of fools, but, if rightly timed, 
the honor of wise men who have not the infirmity but the vir- 
tue of taciturnity, and speak not of the abundance, but of the 
well-weighed thoughts of their hearts. Such silence may be 
eloquence and speak thy worth above the power of words, 
Make such a one thy friend, in whom princes may be happy 
and great counsels successful. Let him have the key of thy 
heart who hath the lock of his own, which no temptation can 
open ; where thy secrets may lastingly lie, like the lamp of 
Olybius his urn, alive and light, but close and invisible. — 
{Sir T. Browne. 

At Trout-Hall, not far from this place, where I propose to 
lodge to-night, there is usually an angler that proves good 
company. And let me tell you that good company and good 
discourse are the very sinews of virtue. — \_Sir Izaak Walton. 




\N my frequent journeyings through 
these pleasant lakes and rivers, with 
no other companion than my guide, 
I have learned to understand how 
really loquacious are silent men of 
meditative mood. For hours to- 
gether they make no sign ; and but 
for an occasional smile, which pass- 
JBF~ es like a ripple of sunshine across 

their composed and peaceful features, they might 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 229 

be deemed as unconscious and as unsusceptible 
as the iron row-locks whose monotonous music 
makes regular record of the march of time. 
But their silence is only in seeming. They 
are all the while holding sprightly mental conver- 
sation with absent friends, with favorite authors, 
with the mountains and forests and lakes which 
surround them, or are rehearsing some pleasant 
incident of field or flood to some sympathizing ac- 
quaintance, who is as really present, giving atten- 
tive audience, as if separated from them by but an 
arm's length instead of a hundred miles. I have 
seen such thoughtful wise men startled from their 
revery, who seemed surprised that they were not 
surrounded by a bevy of companions. This power 
of abstraction is a rare and pleasant gift. It 
differs in itself and in its possessors from absent- 
mindedness, which with me is always associated 
with glum moroseness, or at least with an absence 
of joyous geniality. But the j oiliest-hearted may, 
under favoring circumstances, be abstracted, and 
wake up from his revery without losing a single 
ray of the pleasant sunshine with which his happy 
countenance is always illumined. It is not so with 
the chronically absent-minded, who may be heavy- 
browed but vinegar-visaged and constitutionally 
morbid, and who would no sooner think of angling 
than of robbing the exchequer of the realm. 



230 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

An editor's life is neither the best nor the worst 
in which to cultivate this rare gift. There are 
those in the profession who can so concentrate their 
thoughts that even the pertinacious pleadings of a 
score of office-seekers cannot tangle the thread of 
their meditations; and sometimes even the least 
gifted among us have to throw off sentences amid 
such persistent din that Bedlam itself would seem 
the abode of silence. What little of the art came 
to me by nature and compulsory practice has been 
strengthened by the opportunities for silent medi- 
tation afforded by the habit of angling. My guide, 
who knew and humored my moods, was not, there- 
fore, greatly startled when, in passing the approach 
to Cold brook, I broke the long silence with the 
very unintelligible exclamation : " He was a cun- 
ning old rat." It was the climax of a half hour's 
cogitation upon the protracted waiting and watch- 
ing which finally resulted in the capture of the 
three-pound trout in the form and manner re- 
counted in my last chapter. My guide very quietly 
responded (as if instinctively divining the subject 
of my meditations) to my involuntary observation 
with the simple question : " Did you land him ? " 
And then I became as voluble as I had before been 
silent in recounting to him the incident already 
related to my readers. And just this is the thread 
upon which I have strung this bit of " abstraction." 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 231 

At the rapids, about midway between the lower 
and middle Saranac lakes, there is as pretty a place 
from which to cast as can be found in the world. 
You stand upon solid rock, slightly elevated above 
the rapid-flowing stream, and can throw, if you 
have the skill, without fear of bush or brake, an 
hundred feet. It is the first opportunity one has, 
en route, after his long winter's rest, to shake 
out the wrinkles of disuse. I sometimes wonder 
whether, on some pleasant day in May, not long 
hence, I shall stand on this sunny spot, where 1 
have stood during some portion of every season 
these twenty years, and find, in attempting to 
make my usual cast, that my " right hand has for- 
got its cunuing." As old age cools the blood and 
dims the vision, and checks the elasticity of brain 
and limb, such thoughts sometimes come to the 
most buoyant, and often cast a shadow across the 
sunniest landscape. But it is only a shadow. "With 
the thought comes up the vision of another river, 
brighter and clearer and purer than that which 
flows with such gentle gracefulness at my feet — 
"a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb." It is a vision which reconciles all thought- 
ful anglers to the quick-coming time when these 
pleasant places, which now know them, shall 
know them no more forever. 



232 PLEASURES OF ANGLIKG. 

For the first time in all my experience, I had no 
response here to my persistent appeals for a rise. 
There were a hundred spots within easy cast, 
which looked inviting. By some ^indefinable asso- 
ciation, I found myself parodying that pleasant old 
song, " A Cot in the wood " — probably because of 
the applicability of two of its lines to my present 
surroundings : 

" And I said, ' If there's trout to be found in the world. 
The hand of an expert may hope for them here.' " 

But if they were "here," they failed to respond. 
I tried eddy and current, rapid and pool, deep 
water and shallow, all to no purpose. With a 
"Well, this is strange," I reeled up, took my 
accustomed seat and moved off as disconsolate as a 
disappointed seeker of office. It was some con- 
solation to learn, as I did soon afterward, that two 
or three novices had been " sloshing 'round " the 
rapids and still water, with bait and troll, for 
several hours before our arrival, and had just left 
as we landed. They may have caught some fish, 
but it is a marvel to me often how some of the 
visitors to these waters ever " get a bite." They 
use rods large enough for a shark, lines like minia- 
ture bed-cords, hooks seemingly made for the nose 
of the leviathan, with sinkers which fall into the 
water with a splash which would frighten any 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 233 

sensible trout " out of his propriety." But, some- 
how such fellows do lure fish to their ponderous 
bait ; and that they do so is the strongest evidence 
that could possibly be given of the abundance of 
trout still remaining in these waters. 

But lest, from what I have said of my want of 
success at this favorite spot on this occasion, some 
who remember it as pleasantly as I do myself, may 
heave a sigh of regret at its degeneracy, I had better 
say right here, although a little out of consecutive 
order, that on my return three weeks afterward, I 
found it to be " all my fancy painted it," and all 
my long previous experience had found it to be. 
It was getting well on in the afternoon, we had 
ten miles to row, and I was as nearly satiated with 
angling as I ever expect to be, but I could not fore- 
go the opportunity to make a cast or two as we 
dashed through the rapids homeward. The first 
throw brought a fine fish to the surface. I struck 
him as gently as the law of angling permits, and 
duly landed him. Another and another and an- 
other, in rapid succession, came at my call with a 
promptness and a rush which renders this last half 
hour of my three weeks' fishing a very pleasant 
memory. A dozen, gorgeous in their beauty, lay 
at my feet with a dozen more " making the water 
boil" in their eagerness to "get in out of the 
wet;" but I had no use for them, and with a 

30 



234 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

merry nod to the trout and a long look at the old 
rock we left behind us, we reeled up and went on 
our way rejoicing. 

There are several points between these rapids 
and Bartlett's, ~fi.ve miles distant, where any one 
unused to these waters, and the habits of trout, 
would expect success at any season — deep spring- 
holes and cold brook outlets. But it is only a 
waste of time to fish them before the first or mid- 
dle of July. Trout have their summer watering 
places as well as tourists ; and it is not until the 
heated denizens of the towns and cities begin to 
move off toward Newport and Saratoga that these 
aristocratic tenants of our inland brooks and rivers 
leave the rapids and " riffs " for the cooler retreats 
of deep pools and refreshing spring holes. 

This is one of the first lessons I learned in the 
art of angling. I had ridden fifty miles over a 
rough road on a hot day in August, to a stream 
where, according to the universal verdict, trout 
were as " plenty as blackberries." I placed myself 
under the guidance of a gentleman whom I sup- 
posed " knew the ropes " and upon whom it would 
be safe to lean. Early on the morning after reach- 
ing our destination, following his lead, I plunged 
into the stream — translucent as the atmosphere 
— and began to whip right and left, for a rise. 
Occasionally we would be rewarded by the capture 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 235 

of an ounce trout, who had evidently "lost its 
mammy," and so got lost itself ; but after wading 
some two miles, we had not caught fish enough to 
cover the bottom of our creels. My friend was 
nonplussed, and so was I ; but while far in the 
rear and quite ready to vote fishing a bore, I acci- 
dentally cast my fly into a cozy looking cove, when, 
on the instant, a pound trout rose and was cap- 
tured. The experiment was repeated and re- 
repeated with the same result, when I called to 
my mentor, announced my luck, and suggested a 
change of tactics during the rest of the day. I had 
struck a spring hole, and in twenty minutes had 
caught more fish than both of us had taken during 
the three hours we had been whipping the shal- 
lows and " riffs " in the center of the stream. We 
afterward only fished in spring holes and at the 
mouths of spring brooks, and had no further rea- 
son to question the veracity of the friends who had 
lured us thither. 

It is this habit of the trout which often brings 
disappointment to the novice. He fancies that 
because a stream is a trout-stream that trout should 
be found at all seasons in all parts of it. But I 
would as soon think of looking for a friend in an 
ice-house in January as for a trout in a cold spring 
hole in May or early in June. They are then in 
swift and shallow water, if such water is accessible, 



236 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

and there is where the expert looks for and finds 
them. It would be just as useless to look for trout 
in his spring haunts in August as to look for him 
in his summer haunts in May. Intermediately, 
from the middle of June to the middle of July, 
they are on the move. It is their transition period, 
when they are everywhere in small numbers, 
but abundant nowhere. And during this period 
there are probably more visitors in the woods than 
during any other thirty days of the year. If they 
have any hankering for fish or any taste for angling, 
they could not select, through the whole season, 
any period less propitious. Hence it is no uncom- 
mon thing for parties in the woods at this time to 
find it absolutely impossible to catch fish enough 
for use. But this is not surprising. Experts are 
too wise to go fishing during these thirty days, 
and only experts could lure any considerable num- 
ber of fish, by any process, while they are thus 
passing from the swift waters to the quiet spring 
holes. 

It was my fortune upon one occasion, when 
homeward bound, far on in June, to fall in with a 
party of six or eight who were camped where a 
fortnight before the trout were so abundant that I 
could catch a day's supply for a dozen men in a 
couple of hours. But I found this party literally 
Ashless, and the most profoundly disgusted group 



PLEASURES OF ANGLES. 237 

of disconsolates I ever saw. Some of them had 
been there before, in proper season, and had done 
splendidly ; and they had brought their friends 
with them now, anticipating equal success. I 
explained to them their mistake, recounted to them 
my own experience of a fortnight before, and, out 
of sheer sympathy, escorted them two miles to a 
favorite and secluded pond, where the trout are 
equally plenty at all seasons, and where they were 
made happy by abundant sport. Not one of these 
gentlemen ever afterward " fooled away his time " 
by fishing on the "riffs" when the trout had 
changed their quarters to the spring holes. 

The somewhat monotonous outlet between the 
lower and middle Saranac opens into Round Lake, 
from the upper part of which, one of the grandest 
mountain views reveals itself to be had in all the 
woods. I have counted thirty well-defined peaks, 
the whole combined by a series of gracefully un- 
dulating curves which delight the eye of every 
appreciative lover of nature. My friend Palmer, 
the sculptor, carries this view in his memory to- 
day, and it will not be obliterated by any thing he 
may see in his present rambles among the grander, 
but no more beautiful mountain views of Switzer- 
land. 

Bartlett's somewhat famous hostelry stands at 
the head of this lake and is the summer resort of 



238 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

several greatly esteemed brethren of the angle — 
notably Dr. Romeyn, of Keeseville, whose twenty 
odd annual visits to these woods have only ren- 
dered them the dearer and the more attractive 
to him. He has caught the true spirit of the art, 
and is as cheery and joyous in camp as he is genial 
and accomplished in social life. And so is William 
A. Wheeler, who seeks and finds here the repose 
and invigoration which enables him to discharge 
his official duties at Washington with such exem- 
plary promptness and fidelity. I doubt whether 
the highest office in the gift of the people would 
tempt him for a moment, if its acceptance would 
deprive him of the pleasure and benefit he derives 
from his annual visit to these pleasant woods and 
waters. 

A short walk takes us over " Indian Carry," and 
a short row across the lake to Corey's — where I 
always manage to dine or sup, because Mrs. Corey 
is the best cook in the woods, and never fails to 
give me a cup of coffee as I taught her to make it 
fifteen years ago. There is, besides, generally 
some quiet angler sojourning here, whose company 
and conversation always insures a pleasant eve- 
ning. I know of no better place between Pitts- 
burgh and Potsdam to rest. 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 



AN OLD RESIDENT FINE SPORT 

EXPLODED. 



A FLY THEORY 



Oh ! the gallant fisher's life, 

It is the best of any ; 
'Tis full of pleasure, void of strife, 
And 't is beloved by many : 
Other joys 
Are but toys, 
Only this 
Lawful is ; 
' For our skill 
Breeds no ill, 
But content and pleasure. 

[Sir Izaak Walton. 




ASSINXt from Corey's across a half 
mile cany, we strike a series of 
ponds which empty through Stony 
brook into the Raquette. Many 
years ago, when I first came here, 
this carry was covered with a dense 
growth of beautiful pines. But 
the demand for lumber was too 
pressing to be resisted, and this 
still delightful spot is denuded of 
its most attractive feature. The work of lumber- 
ing is being pushed vigorously within practical 
distances of all the water-courses of sufficient 



gp^ 



240 PLEASURES OF ANGLING-. 

volume to float the logs to manufacturing points, 
of which Plattsburg, Potsdam and Glen's Falls 
are the principal. During the winter the logs 
are cut and placed upon the ice, ready for the 
spring freshets, and from the time of breaking 
up until well on in May, there is scarcely an 
available stream which is not filled with these 
moving masses. And yet the Rev. Mr. Murray, 
in his famous book, contrasting the Adirondacks 
with the forests of Maine, says of the former that 
they retain their primitive beauty because a the 
sound of the woodman's ax has never been heard " 
among them. If the reverend gentleman's theology 
is as loose as his facts, it must be a poor commodity. 

But these annual drafts upon this wilderness are 
scarcely perceptible to the casual observer. Pine 
and spruce and hemlock constitute but a very small 
percentage of the entire forest, which remains 
seemingly as dense as if the woodman's ax had 
really never been heard here or the lumberman had 
never responded to the demands of commerce. 

Stony brook (through which we pass to the Pa- 
quette) besides the water of its two or three ponds, 
has the flow from Ampersand brook, which has its 
supply from Ampersand pond, which lies some five 
miles up the mountain. The outlet of this brook 
is famous for its summer fishing, but it has never 
been my fortune to strike it at just the right mo- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 241 

ment to find practical confirmation of the truth of 
the large stories which are told abont it. But I can 
believe them, for its source and surroundings are 
exactly adapted to make it a great gathering place 
for trout during the hottest of the summer months. 

In these Stony brook ponds we have our first 
illustration of the effect of the high dam which has 
recently been built at Setting Pole rapids. The 
water was full eight feet above its natural level — 
an advantage only in this, that it enabled us to 
make an almost " straight wake " for the Raquette, 
instead of following the indescribably tortuous 
channel of the brook. 

Near the point where this brook strikes the Ra- 
quette there has resided, solitary and alone, for 
many years, a man well-known to the frequenters 
of these woods. His house is primitive but quite 
spacious, and is surrounded by forty or fifty acres 
of well cleared land, of more than average produc- 
tiveness for this region. Although living thus 
remote from neighbors and civilization, he is of 
more than ordinary intelligence, of a philosophical 
and metaphysical turn of mind, keeps closely posted 
in regard to trade, commerce, politics and general 
science, is and has been for many years an attentive 
reader, is hospitable, courteous and eccentric. He 
is, withal, an ardent lover of music, and before 
time and hard work had robbed his digits of their 
31 



242 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

pliability, nothing gave him greater pleasure than 
to entertain his guests by exhibitions of his skill 
upon his favorite instrument, the violin. He is 
the trusted agent of several large land-owners, has 
more ready cash (rumor says) than some of' his 
employers, and does more good with it than many 
who make far greater parade of their wealth and 
benevolence. And yet he has neither watch nor 
clock in his domicile. When the question was put 
to him : " Mr. Calkins, without a timepiece of any 
kind in the house, how do you know when to get 
up?" "Oh," said he, "I always get up when it 
stops raining" — not a bad rule, certainly, for a 
gentleman whose business does not require him to 
imperil his health by exposing it to the weather. I 
think I discovered in my last visit that the old gen- 
tleman was less fond of his solitary life than for- 
merly, and yearned anxiously for the society which 
he enjoyed in his youth and which is so essential 
to one's comfort in old age. When he does leave 
these woods, he will be missed, for he has been a 
pleasant companion to a great many anglers, who 
appreciated his character and peculiarities. 

The row down the Eaquette, with its overflowed 
banks and strong current, was extremely pleasant. 
There was this drawback, however, that the high 
water robbed the river, in its immediate surround- 
ings, of much of its beauty. We missed many old 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 243 

landmarks, and because of the overflow, passed a 
great many points where, before this piece of arti- 
ficial vandalism (the high dam meaning) had 
worked its work, we were wont to find our best 
fishing. But after-success made ample amends for 
our present disappointment. On the 27th of May 
it was our good fortune to strike "the rapids" (so 
called) near " Big Ox-bow," — famous as a trout 
haunt for a few days in the Spring, while the fish 
are passing up stream from the lower waters. We 
were apprehensive that the unparalleled high water 
had destroyed this favorite resort, as it had a hun- 
dred others. But our fears were unfounded. I 
never knew the trout so abundant or so full of life. 
In two hours we killed twenty fish, which weighed 
31 J- lbs. — one of them three pounds and a half, 
plump. We could have quadrupled our catch dur- 
ing the afternoon had we been so disposed. But 
we could not use them, and we had no desire to 
imitate the bad example of too many anglers, who 
take fish as long as they will rise, even though they 
are obliged to leave them on the shore to rot. 
Many tons are thus destroyed every year by those 
who lack the ■' quality of mercy " which is inherent 
in the true angler. There should be a stringent 
law against such shameful waste. It is as deserving 
of the pillory as sheep-stealing. Others subse- 
quently had great success at this same point ; but 



244 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

I have heard of no two hours' fishing which ave- 
raged so roundly. 

Greatly pleased with our success at " the rapids," 
but desiring to push on to other pleasantly remem- 
bered resorts, we were 'soon at Tupper's Lake — 
one of the most beautiful and majestic lakes in the 
wilderness. But there was no temptation to remain 
long upon its immediate borders. The high water 
had so affected the currents that many of the places 
I had been used to fish were no longer gathering 
places for trout. Hence, instead of, as usual, pass- 
ing two or three days at these old camping grounds, 
and at the " high rocks " and swift waters in the 
neighborhood, we passed them by with a single 
cast or two, to one of which a pickerel responded, 
a sigh and a smothered malediction (in the spirit of 
Uncle Toby), and pushed on past "Peter's Rocks" 
to " Setting Pole Rapids," where I have always 
had finer sport than at any other point in the wil- 
derness. I was not at all sanguine now, because I 
did not know what effect the dam had had upon 
the depth and flow of the water below it. But at 
the first cast my doubts were dissipated. The 
response was prompt and vigorous, and for a week 
I enjoyed the luxury of an angler's paradise, of 
which more anon. 

I first visited these rapids fifteen years ago. 
Some of them who were with me then have gone 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 245 

to their rest ; among them my earliest and trusted 
guide, who knew more of woodcraft and of angling 
than any man I ever met. But George Morse now 
sleeps his last sleep in the Soldier's Cemetery at 
"Washington, where his resting-place is marked by 
a simple head-stone, reared to his memory by his 
old friend, Gen. Spinner, who was " one of us " 
during this first visit, and whose genial humor and 
happy ways rendered that particular excursion, 
extending from Boonville to Potsdam, ever-memo- 
rable. The General seldom fished during the trip, 
except for minnows as bait for others. His de- 
light was to gather ferns and leaves and mosses 
and shells and geological specimens with which to 
adorn his home cabinet. And this habit, with all 
his exhausting labors as treasurer of the United 
States, he has kept up from that day to this. Those 
who visit his private office in the treasury building 
at Washington will find its walls lined with beau- 
tiful clusters of these treasures of nature, all of his 
own gathering. They mark the simple tastes and 
habits of the man through whose hands hundreds 
of thousands of millions have passed during the 
last twelve years without a single dollar adhering 
unlawfully to his fingers. Would he be what he 
is in the responsible office he holds had he not first 
acquired the simple habits of an honest angler? 
His jealous care of his responsible trust now pre- 



246 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

vents him from visiting the North Woods ; bnt he 
still "goes a-fishing." There are few points on 
the Potomac, within easy reach of Washington, 
where he has not angled. This, with his daily 
botanising, is his only recreation. He is an enthu- 
siastic lover of nature, and, in his moments of lei- 
sure, takes great delight in discoursing of fish and 
fishing. When he goes to his long home, the peo- 
ple will lose an honest and diligent servant, and 
the fraternity of anglers an appreciative and genial 
companion. 

It was during this first visit to these rapids that 
the pretty conceit was dissipated that the angler 
who had the greatest variety of flies stood the best 
chance of success. It had been my pride to ex- 
hibit my fly-book to wondering admirers, and to 
pass glowing eulogies upon the artistic skill of 
McBride, of Caledonia, whose deft manipulation of 
silk and feather made him in those days famous 
wherever delicate angling was a recognized accom- 
plishment. There was no fly which his observa- 
tion had ever suggested or his imagination ever 
conceived, of which I had not samples. Many of 
them were the most perfect imitations possible of 
the prolific productions of nature, but others, in 
their gorgeous beauty, might have been worshipped 
without trenching upon the limits of idolatry. 
Yet they were all labeled taking flies in their sea- 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 247 

son ! When I had faith in the idea that all luck 
depended upon the use of exactly the right fly for 
the time and the occasion — for early morning and 
for the close of day, for sunshine and shade, for 
fair weather and foul, for still water and rapids, 
for shallow water and pools, for river and brook, 
and for this and for that interminably, — I was 
kept pleasantly busy two-thirds of my time hunt- 
ing for the right fly to take trout where no trout 
lay to be taken. 

On first reaching these rapids many years ago, 
it chanced that I had lost my leader by carelessly 
using my fly-line as a troll through the still water. 
A large fish had taken one of the flies when I ex- 
pected no such visitor, and by a careless movement 
of my rod, fish, leader and fly incontinently retired 
in indissoluble union, to come back to me no more 
forever. My tackling was in a boat far in the 
rear, and I had no patience, with the inviting rap- 
ids and promising eddies before me, to await its 
coming. I had " in my mind's eye, Horatio," just 
the dazzling ibis I wished to use. I was sure that 
that and nothing else would bring abundant grist 
to my mill. But I had no ibis, and was about to 
give up in sullen silence, and await the arrival of 
the tardy rear guard for what I deemed to be in- 
dispensable to success, when my guide suggested a 
combination of red and blue flannel as a substitute. 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

He had the red and I had the blue. An ordinary 
fish-hook, a penknife and a few twists of silk did 
the business. The extemporized fly was made up, 
adjusted, cast and taken as quickly as I have told 
the story, and far more successfully. The red and 
blue flannel lure, and the half score of trout I took 
with it, dissipated all my fine fancies about gor- 
geous flies, and ultimately reduced my fly-book to 
a half dozen varieties suitable for spring or sum- 
mer, shady or sunny days and shallow or deep 
water. But even these are practically reduced to 
two or three, notably the brown and black hackle, 
the red ibis, the miller for evening, and, for very 
swift, deep water, a large purple and red nonde- 
script. And yet I would advise all experts to keep 
a well-filled fly-book. It is a pleasure to experi- 
ment, and the educated eye takes delight in look- 
ing at the variety of colors, shapes and forms 
which the skilled workman in fly-art has provided 
as lures for the speckled beauties. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



FISHING AT SETTING POLE RAPIDS 
WORTHY INCIDENTS. 



TWO NOTE- 



Piscator, Jr. — To come to this fine stream at the head of 
this great pool, you must venture over these slippery, cob- 
bling stones. Believe me, sir, there you were nimble or else 
you were down ! But now you are got over, look to yourself; 
for on my word, if a fish rise here, he is like to be such a one 
as will endanger your tackle. How now ! 

Viator — I think you have such command here over the 
fishes, that you can raise them by your hand as they say con- 
jurors can do spirits and afterward make them do what you 
bid them ; for here's a trout has taken my fly ! I had rather 
have lost a crown. What luck's this ! He was a lovely fish, 
and turned up a side like a salmon ! — \Charles Cotton. 




HE excitement of angling increases 
with the risks incurred. There is 
but very little pleasure in taking 
a three-pound trout upon a two- 
pound rod, with a No. 9 bait hook 
and a line strong enough for a 
shark. Such angling requires 
neither art nor skill. But a three- 
pound trout on a tiny fly-hook 
attached to a gossamer leader and 
line, the whole depending from an eight-ounce 
32 



250 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

rod, and the trout struggling and leaping amid 
rapids dashing and foaming among jagged rocks — 
that is an experience which lifts the angler " into 
the seventh heaven," and gives him such exhila- 
rating excitement that it remains to him a pleas- 
ant memory and " a joy forever." This is the 
sort of sport I always have at Setting Pole rapids, 
and never in larger or more perfect measure than 
during this present visit. Here are a few illustra- 
tions of the past and present : 

A few years ago, before the dam was built, to 
reach the best points for casting it was necessary to 
stand upon some one of the numerous bowlders 
which lifted themselves above the water at the 
head of the rapids. When the water was well up, 
these standpoints were only reached over extempo- 
rized bridges composed of a single sapling extend- 
ing from rock to rock, and often crossed at the 
hazard of a chilling plunge in the foaming rapids. 
I had reached the point I desired — a rock about 
the size and shape of a chair-bottom and slippery 
as ice from the wetted moss which covered its sur- 
face. On either side of it the water was six feet 
deep and very rapid. It was a hazardous stand 
from which to cast, but the most coveted within a 
circuit of thirty miles. After creeling a dozen very 
handsome fish, I resolved, with a feeling which 
anglers will appreciate, upon " just one cast more." 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 251 

I made it, when the largest trout I ever saw in 
these waters rolled up to my fly, but I failed to 
strike him. I drew in and cast again, and again he 
rose, but the great resistance which his broad side 
presented to the swift current prevented him from 
overcoming the inch or two which intervened be- 
tween his open jaws and my fly. But the dash was 
so eager that he threw himself entirely out of 
water, and I shouted to my guide, who was stand- 
ing on the shore with distended eye and open 
mouth, " four pounds, if an ounce ! " as my brown 
hackle again dropped just where I saw his broad 
fan-tail disappear at his last rise. Up he came with 
a rush ; and before he lost his ascending momen- 
tum, I struck him with a thud ! which gave me 
assurance that I had him securely hooked. For a 
moment he seemed content with the situation, but 
so soon as he discovered that he was not his own 
master, the tussle began. I struck him at thirty 
feet, in deep and swift but unobstructed water. I 
soon found that I could not hold him just at the 
point I desired, and was obliged to give him line. 
All went on finely for ten minutes. My eight- 
ounce rod nearly doubled upon itself, but stood the 
test charmingly ; when, with a side rush which I 
could not prevent, he secured to himself the whole 
force of the current, and was distant a hundred 
feet in an instant. Within ten feet of the point he 



252 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

had thus reached was a cluster of rocks and a fall 
from which I must keep him or lose him. To hold 
him was like holding an unruly colt with a halter, 
and I soon discovered that he could not be started 
an inch homeward without " smashing things" in 
the attempt. As a last resort I called to my guide 
to wade in and net him. He responded at once, 
although the water reached his arm-pits, and the 
current threatened to take him from his feet at 
every step. To place the monster in the most 
favorable position possible, I gently forced him to 
near the side of a rock, that he might be the more 
easily reached. My guide made an honest effort, 
but in his excitement he struck wild, the fish was 
frightened and gave a spring which tore off the 
leader and let my released rod spring home with a 
bound which came near making me throw a back 
somersault into the foaming rapids, when I retired 
from the contest more heated in temper and blood 
than I had been before in a twelvemonth. But I 
soon became reconciled to the situation by arguing 
that such an half hour's contest was worth more 
than a thousand trout. 

The next day, from the same spot, having four 
flies on my leader, I hooked four trout, aggregating 
five pounds in weight. In this swift water I had 
my hands full. But in due time they were sub- 
dued. The most difficult task was to land them 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 253 

from my contracted and slippery pedestal. I suc- 
ceeded, however, by stooping down carefully and 
securing, by hand, each fish alternately as he lay in 
the water, except one, who broke the snell by chaf- 
ing against the rock. 

On reaching the rapids this year, I was not at 
all sanguine of success, even below the dam, whose 
construction had made such sad havoc with the 
best fishing points above. But I was soon relieved 
of my apprehensions. I had a prompt response to 
my first cast, and speedily landed a two-pound 
trout, the precursor of many more of the same 
sort, killed during our week's sojourn. And it 
was a week of supreme satisfaction. The rapids 
were full of trout, large, active and eager; and as 
there was a lumber shanty in the neighborhood, 
whose occupants were quite willing to receive all 
we sent them, we could satisfactorily dispose of 
the surplus portion of our catch. But very soon 
the supply was in excess of this demand, and I 
compromised with my conscience by throwing back 
all under two pounds. I dare not say how many 
were thus " rehabilitated," but enough, certainly, 
to furnish a rich harvest for my next year's visit. 

Although I have had no such success in twenty 
years at this or any other point in all this region, 
I have only one thing which anglers would deem 
at all noteworthy to record. I was casting with 



254 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

my light fly rod in the swiftest water, when 1 
had a strike which indicated unusual muscle. My 
click-reel flew round like a mill-spindle. I an- 
swered the call for "more line" until a hundred 
feet interposed between my slender tip and the 
fish, when I " cried a halt," as it was absolutely 
necessary to prevent him from passing over a rock 
which showed its foam-covered crest in his imme- 
diate neighborhood. This I found a difficult thing 
to do in such furious rapids, with the delicate rod 
from which the line depended. The heavy strain 
upon it had given it the curve of a perfect semi- 
circle, and I was apprehensive that the addition of 
a single ounce would prove more than it could 
bear ; but to reel up was a necessity. If the fish 
reached the impetuous current which passed on 
either side of the bowlder, something would break 
in the effort to check him. It was at this moment, 
when the contest was at its height, that Uvo large 
trout revealed themselves as my prisoners. This 
revelation added to the interest of the contest, and 
seemed to render victory on my side entirely hope- 
less. But after twenty minutes of such intense 
excitement as only anglers will comprehend, I 
landed them both, without the aid of net or gaff ; 
and they weighed together four pounds and a char- 
ter, one weighing two pounds, and the other two 
pounds and four ounces. It would have been 



PLEASURES OE ANGLING. 255 

easier to have landed a single six-pound er. The 
play of such, a strike is the acme of angling, and 
would be received by any expert as full compensa- 
tion for a week's jonrney. 

As an instructive lesson to fly-fishers, I may add 
that the tip which, with the care necessary in such 
a contest, bore this test of the excellence of its 
fibre, by being carelessly handled the next day, 
snapped under the pressure of a half-pound trout. 
The very best rod-makers are often anathematized 
for the inferior character of their material and 
their imperfect workmanship, when the anathema 
belongs to the stupid or careless angler. This tip 
had served me faithfully through two years of 
hard work, and it would have served me other 
years still, but for the folly of attempting to strike 
a mere minnow with the rod nearly perpendicular. 
When your rod exceeds an angle of forty-five, it is 
out of safe striking line. Better haul in for an- 
other cast than risk the break which will almost 
inevitably follow a heavy strike beyond that angle. 
I passed this pet tip into the depository of kindred 
wrecks, with the feeling which one experiences in 
bidding a long farewell to an old friend. I fear 
" I ne'er shall look upon its like again." 



256 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

ADDENDA. 

My respected associate, in a delightful letter 
from Watch-Hill, which was published the other 
day, concedes the attractive beauty of forest and 
river scenery, and the invigorating healthfulness of 
mountain air, but claims the palm for old ocean in 
both respects. A mutual friend, whose partialities 
lean forest ward, sends us the following in reply : 

TO " C. E. S." 

I've read your letter — so you have a notion 

That mount and lake must yield the palm to ocean ? 

Not so, my boy: I know you're orthodox, 

And one small text your talk all endways knocks ! 

In that vast Heaven — which I hope you'll reach — 

There rolls no ocean with its stretch of beach. 

John, he of Patmos, in his splendid vision, 

Saw no salt water 'mid the fields elysian — 

That " better country," which is out of sight, 

Has streams of crystal ever fresh and bright ; 

But John bears witness, and you must agree, 

'Mid scenes all heavenly "there'll be no more sea." 

You write good letters 'way from brick and mortar, 
But your sea-sentiment — will not hold water. 



CHAPTEE XXXI. 



STALE FISH IN A BAD FIX 



REEL UP. 



Venator. — When I would beget content, and increase 
confidence in the power and wisdom and providence of 
Almighty God, I will walk the meadows by some gliding 
stream, and there contemplate the lilies that take no care, 
and those very many other various little living creatures, who 
are not only created, but fed, man knows not how, by the 
goodness of the God of nature, and therefore trust in Him. 
This is my purpose ; and so, " Let every thing that hath breath 
praise the Lord : " and let the blessing of St. Peter's Master 
be with mine. 

Piscator. — And upon all that are lovers of virtue and 
dare trust in His providence, and be quiet, and go a-Angling. 
— \_Sir Izaak Walton. 




OWEYER indifferent anglers may 
be in regard to the ordinary lux- 
uries of the table, they have epi- 
curean ideas about fish. A few- 
hours makes a vast difference in 
the flavor of any fish; bat with 
none is this fact more perceptible 
than with trout. Those anglers 
mean well who compliment their 
friends with a mess of fish a week old ; but how- 
ever carefully they may have been doctored and 
packed, they lose their delicate flavor and are 
33 



258 PLEASURES OF ANGLING-. 

stale ; and a sxale fish is an unpalatable morsel. 
While camping where a casting point was con- 
venient (and it was rare when this was not the 
case), we never deemed it in good taste to cook 
a fish for breakfast which had been caught over 
night. If there are trout to be caught at all, you 
may be sure of a rise in the early morning ; and 
you are equally sure of a delicious breakfast if you 
catch at Rve o'clock what you propose to eat at 
seven. 

I have had a great deal of pleasant sport at Pears- 
field Falls, the most picturesque bit of scenery in 
the woods. Those who have visited these Falls 
will remember the unique ledge which projects 
out upon their right side. I have caught trout 
from that point, at the very verge of the boiling 
cauldron, until my arms ached. But this year the 
water was too high to render that particular spot 
accessible, and I took to the boat to reach a favorite 
eddy, where usually trout gather. To do so re- 
quired a long cast in the immediate proximity of a 
mass of saw-logs, which were swirling like fierce 
war-horses in the rapid current and surging eddies 
which held them fast prisoners in their whirling 
circle. The experiment, for a moment, looked like 
a success ; but, in making a second cast for a good 
sized trout which, at the first effort, failed to reach 
the lure, a gust of wind swept my leader from its 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 259 

course, and instead of to the trout, which seemed 
eager to be taken, my fly hooked to a monster 
saw-log, which was pursuing its mad dance in the 
surging eddies. I " caved " at the possibility of 
landing so huge a catch, but was ambitious to save 
my tackling. The struggle was protracted and 
exciting, being in doubt whether, instead of saving 
my tackling, we would not ourselves be caught in 
the whirlpool, upon the very verge of which the 
struggle was progressing, and thereby give our 
friends at home an opportunity to laugh at our 
mishap or mourn at our funeral. But, fortunately, 
perhaps, in the adventurous spirit which had seized 
us, the saw-log was the victor. In making an un- 
usual swirl, as it encountered some unusual eddy, 
helped by the bump of a score of others in a like 
predicament, my line snapped, and leader and flies 
were left prisoners of war, where they are still ac- 
companying these fugitive saw-logs in their dizzy 
whirl at the foot of Pearsfield Falls. A few small 
trout, a sumptuous lunch, a drink of delicious water 
from one of the coldest springs in the wilderness, 
and several hours of unalloyed enjoyment, sufficed 
to fill our cup full of that quiet sort of pleasure 
which I find nowhere so abundantly as in these 
quiet forests. 

My largest fish at Setting Pole rapids weighed 
three pounds. But I was enabled to go a pound 



260 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

better a few days afterwards at " Three-Pound 
Pond," a beautiful sheet of water, clear as crystal, 
in the neighborhood of the famous " Hitching' s 
Pond " — which affords the best August fishing of 
any body of water in the woods. After a long 
siege of fly casting, with no other reward than a 
single fish of two pounds, I reluctantly resorted to 
the troll, when I was rewarded with a four pounder, 
the largest speckled trout I had ever captured. If 
I had taken him with a fly, I would have deemed 
it ample compensation for the time and expense of 
my trip. But that at least one " fish story " may 
be recorded truthfully, the trolling line and minnow 
are thus given the credit which belongs to them. 
I have often fished in this pond, and have taken 
therefrom many large trout, and it seems to hold 
no other, but I have succeeded, after patient trial, 
in taking but two with a fly. There may be points 
where, in July or August, the fly may be success- 
ful. But even this is doubtful, for the whole pond 
seems to be a bubbling spring, clear and cold, rend- 
ering it unnecessary for the fish to seek specially 
cool places in hot weather. 

As usual, I took a run to Big "Wolf Pond, where 
more large lake trout have been taken than in any 
other water inclosure in the woods, and where Dr. 
Perkins, two years ago, took his famous twenty- 
seven-pounder. But the glory of "Big Wolf 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 261 

has departed. A ten-pound fish is the largest I 
have heard of being taken in its waters this year, 
and I trolled three hours without a strike. It has 
been trolled and speared and buoyed and set-lined 
to death. It will soon cease to be visited by 
any one. 

But while I found the pond thus barren, the 
outlet was as fruitful of large brook-trout and black 
flies as ever. Amid such a swarm of the latter as 
would compel the instant retreat of any one not, 
as I was, thoroughly swabbed with tar oil, I caught 
several fish which weighed two and three pounds, 
the largest being the fattest and most beautifully 
marked fish I ever saw. 

" Bog Eiver Falls," at the head of "Big Tup- 
per," proved so attractive that it held us in camp 
four days. The view from our camping ground, 
near the Falls, in sunshine or by moonlight, was 
entrancing. It revealed to us, at a glance, not only 
all the beauties of this most beautiful lake itself, but 
the cloud-capped summits of a score of mountains 
besides. " Grand," " beautiful," " majestic," " su- 
blime," " transparent," " translucent," etc., etc., 
could all be used with propriety, were I in the 
descriptive mood. But, as this chapter is dedicated 
to fish and not to scenery, it is only proper to say 
that the large trout always found at the foot of the 
Falls, behaved handsomely, and graced our table 



262 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 

daily with as delicate morsels as ever melted on 
human palate. 

It is, however, neighborly to warn all anglers 
against the assumption that because they may find 
large and delicious fish at the foot of the Falls 
there must be equally large and delicate fish up the 
river. It took several years' experience to convince 
me that this idea was erroneous. The fish up the 
river are neither large, abundant nor of delicate 
flavor. And the farther up you go, the worse you 
are off, until you strike Hitching's pond. The 
fish found at the Falls find their feed and growth 
and flavor in Big Tupper and adjacent waters. 
There is something in Bog river which causes a 
deterioration ; and it is worse still in Little Tupper 
and its outlet. There the fish are lean and of poor 
flavor — not in winter and early spring alone, for 
the trout of all waters are infested with unpalata- 
ble and unseemly parasites until they pass into 
the rapids in the spring — but at all seasons. This 
positive statement may " turn the stomachs " of 
some of my friends who like to visit this lake 
because its trout are sometimes large and always 
abundant. But I can't help it. Truth is truth, 
and unclean trout should not be eaten. Little 
Tupper is a great resort for deer, and it will pay 
sportsmen to go there for them. But I advise 
those who persist in complementing their roast 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 263 

venison with a dish of speckled trout to do, not as 
Mrs. Glass suggests, "first catch and then cook," 
but first catch, then critically examine, and then 
eat " with what stomach you may." 

After a week's further rambling, with delightful 
repetitions of pleasant days, charming scenery and 
abundant sport — at Hitching's pond, at Raquette 
Falls, Cold river, Big Rock, Split Rock and other 
places famous for the abundance and weight of 
their fish — we reluctantly turned our faces home- 
ward. But not until we had had evidence of the 
rapidity with which pickerel are multiplying in 
these waters. As they rarely take a fly, I was dis- 
gusted but once with a rise from one of them. 
But those who trolled, particularly around the 
Falls and in the vicinity of Cold river, were con- 
stantly annoyed by them. And this annoyance 
will increase every year (for no fish multiplies 
more rapidly,) until trout fishing in the Raquette 
will cease to be the attractive amusement which it 
has been these thirty years, and which it still is to 
those who know how to fish. 

I have all my life heard of the monster fish 
caught in the rivers of Maine, aud although I have 
angled in almost all the waters from Quebec to 
Minnesota, I have yet to experience the pleasure 
of landing a seven-pound trout. This pleasure I 



264 



PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



hope to enjoy the coming season.* Meanwhile I 
bid adieu to the Adirondacks until another Spring- 
time shall return, when, if all is well, I shall again 
"go a-fishing." 

* This hope was realized in June, '74, in Rangely lake. I was casting 
with my lightest rod, when a large fish struck my fly, and after a two 
hours' fight I landed a genuine brook trout, which weighed exactly 
seven pounds. I have a fine portrait of the fish, painted in oil on 
birch bark, by my friend Dr. Otis, of New York, who was of the 
party. It is a beautiful picture, and I cherish it above rubies. 









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